Spices are materials with aroma and/or fragrance. The former refers to substances that can be perceived by human smell, while the latter refers to substances that cause humans to produce a comprehensive effect of aroma, taste, and taste. It is mainly used to prepare essence for flavoring products, or directly used as food additives. Essence is a mixture containing various fragrance ingredients, which is manually prepared or produced by fermentation, enzymolysis, thermal processing and other methods.

In October 2018, the data of China Flavor essence and Cosmetics Industry Association showed that, after 40 years of development, the number of enterprises in the essence and fragrance industry has increased from 83 in 1980 to more than 1000, and the market scale has also expanded from 524 million yuan in 1980 to 37.06 billion yuan in 2017, with the market scale expanding more than 70 times. According to the statistics of essence production and sales revenue in China in recent years, the essence industry has shown a relatively rapid growth trend year by year, and the production of essence has basically adapted to the needs of people's lives, industrial and agricultural production and market. In 2019, the output of essence and spice in China was about 1850 tons. China Commercial Industry Research Institute predicts that the output of essence and fragrance in China will reach 2113 tons in 2022.

Essence and fragrances are mainly used in food, beverage, daily chemicals and other products. They have close contact with consumers and are closely related to the daily life of the people. In the daily supervision, the supervision department paid great attention to the safety of essence and flavor products. All countries have clear restrictions on the types and dosage of edible essence. In recent years, the supervision of essence and fragrances used in food, beverages and daily chemicals has also been strengthened by listing the prohibited list, and the list has been updated. Producers will also be more cautious about the research and development of new essence and flavor varieties, and ensure that the new products developed can meet the requirements of laws and regulations and market demand through longer research and development cycles and more comprehensive safety tests.

Limited by technology and talents, the concentration of essence and fragrance industry in China is relatively low. After years of rapid development, China's essence and fragrance industry has emerged a number of professional essence and fragrance production enterprises. Some key enterprises have developed rapidly and actively participated in global market competition. Enterprises with certain influence in the industry are accelerating their growth and expansion through joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, or the assistance of the capital market. The increase in industry concentration will become the future development trend of the domestic market.

Due to the unsynchronized development of the global economy, the essence and spice markets in different regions are also different. In regions such as Western Europe and North America that have taken the lead in development, the food and daily chemical industries have entered a highly developed stage, with a wide variety of products and high per capita consumption, but insufficient growth momentum. Although Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and other regions started late, their economies developed rapidly. With the increase of population and per capita income, the demand for food and daily chemical products grew day by day, driving the development of essence and fragrance industry. Therefore, emerging markets have become the main driving force for the development of the global essence and spice market. In addition, consumers in different regions have different tastes for essence and spice products due to environmental, cultural and historical reasons. The local essence and spice manufacturers in emerging markets can rely on their knowledge of local consumers' taste preferences to launch more popular formulas, which may seize the development opportunity and change the market pattern of essence and spice to a certain extent.

With the development of economy, the improvement of people's living standards, and the continuous growth of downstream, the market scale of essence and fragrance industry continues to expand. According to the report issued by the IAL consulting agency, the global market size of essence and fragrance will reach 30 billion US dollars by 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 5.1%. According to the prediction of China Flavor essence and Cosmetics Industry Association, during the "13th Five Year Plan" period, the average annual growth rate of China's essence and fragrance industry is not less than 7%, which is higher than the national economy (GDP) development expectation. By 2020, the total production and sales are expected to reach about 51 billion yuan.

The essence and fragrance industry is highly open and the market competition is fierce. Internationally renowned essence and fragrance manufacturers can often lead the formulation of industry standards and the development direction of new products by virtue of their long-standing brand advantages, strong technical accumulation, advanced production equipment, good product quality and standardized business philosophy. At the same time, domestic enterprises are accelerating their participation in international market competition and cooperation by leveraging their accumulated production experience, talent reserves, and domestic cost advantages in recent years. At present, a group of local enterprises with international influence have emerged in China. Through continuous investment and pursuit of production technology and product quality, their brand awareness in the international market has gradually formed, and their influence is increasing day by day. The increasingly fierce competition pattern of the global essence and spice market will be.

For the source and analysis of the above data, please refer to the Research Report on Market Prospects and Investment Opportunities of essence and Fragrance in China issued by China Commercial Industry Research Institute. Meanwhile, China Commercial Industry Research Institute also provides services such as industrial big data, industrial intelligence, industrial research reports, industrial planning, park planning, the 14th Five Year Plan, and industrial investment promotion.