(Yicai Global) May 15 -- Chinese companies are attempting to increase their share of the country’s CNY100 billion (USD14.4 billion) probiotics market that is dominated by overseas companies through the cultivation of core strains and better marketing.

Many Chinese firms are stepping up research into probiotics and developing more of their own intellectual property rights and core strains to fend off stiff competition from foreign companies that currently occupy 85 percent of the market.

The US’ Dupont de Nemours made up half of China's probiotics market in 2021, while Denmark’s Chr. Hansen occupied 35 percent, according to data from intestinal health research firm China Gut.

Meanwhile Chinese vendors, such as Health and Happiness International Holdings, By-Health, Beijing Scitop Bio-tech and Juneyao Grand Healthy Drinks and Wonderlab, are crammed into the remaining 15 percent.

Given a penetration ratio of less than 10 percent in China, probiotics still have huge market space, executives of Wonderlab, which is backed by China’s IDG Capital and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, told Yicai Global. As people become more acquainted with probiotics, which are live microorganisms believed to promote a healthy gut, the sector will develop even quicker, he added.

Scitop Bio-tech, which logged a more than 50 percent jump in revenue in 2022 from 2021, already has a library of over 20,000 strains of lactobacillus, that includes those used in probiotics, the Beijing-based company said. And it has mastered the full set of technology related to probiotics.

And Jiangnan University in Wuxi, eastern Jiangsu province established the country's biggest library of patented probiotics strains last year, China News reported previously.

Chinese probiotics firms are also seeking to expand their marketing channels. Scitop Bio-tech not only sells its products in brick-and-mortar stores but also online. Shenzhen-based Wonderlab has been operating e-stores since it was founded in 2019 and posted sales of CNY60 million (USD8.6 million) that year.

The output value of the global probiotics industry will top USD77 billion by 2025, a quarter of which will come from China, market research firm Zion Market Research said.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor