Advertisement
China stock market
BusinessMarkets

Chinese natural sweetener producers’ stocks surge as aspartame report fuels speculation of replacement demand

  • A cancer research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO) is set to declare aspartame, an artificial sweetener, as possibly carcinogenic, Reuters reported
  • Shares of Sanyuan Biotechnology and Baolingbao, makers of natural sweetener erythritol among those that have surged on the report

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
1
Packs of Wrigley’s Extra chewing gum are seen on display at a market in New York City, New York. Photo: Reuters
Zhang Shidongin Shanghai

Shares of Shandong Sanyuan Biotechnology, Guilin Layn Natural Ingredients and other makers of food additives surged on Friday in Shanghai and Shenzhen markets on expectations demand for their products could rise after a media report that the widely-used artificial sweetener aspartame could possibly be carcinogenic.

Sanyuan Biotechnology jumped as much as 9.9 per cent to 34.99 yuan, Guilin Layn surged by the 10 per cent daily limit to 8.50 yuan and Baolingbao Biology also rose by a tenth to the day’s high of 9.39 yuan. Anhui Jinhe Industrial gained 4.9 per cent to 23.60 yuan. They easily outperformed the CSI 300 Index which rose 0.5 per cent.

Sanyuan Biotechnology manufactures erythritol, a naturally abundant sweetener, Guilin Layn makes natural ingredients derived from plants and Baolingbao makes erythritol and isomaltitol, a sugar substitute.

The buying binge was spurred by a Reuters report that a cancer research arm under the World Health Organization (WHO) will declare aspartame, the artificial sweetener that is widely used in diet drinks and sugar-free gum, as possibly carcinogenic to humans, next month. A separate expert committee on food additives under the WHO was also reviewing the use of aspartame and plans to release its findings at the same time.
Packages of Diet Coke are seen on display at a market in New York City, New York. Photo: Reuters
Packages of Diet Coke are seen on display at a market in New York City, New York. Photo: Reuters

Aspartame is commonly used in China’s food and beverage industry catering to the sugar-free trend. The diet drinks market alone quadrupled in five years since 2017 to reach nearly 20 billion yuan ($2.76 billion) last year, according to consultancy iiMedia Research.

Advertisement