Market size and development trend of gummy candy production line

Market size and development trend of gummy candy production line

Market size and industry development trend of gummy production line (equipment end) (2026 version)

1、 Market size data
1. Global market
The global market size of complete production equipment for gummies is expected to reach approximately 3.8 billion US dollars by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.1% from 2026 to 2034, and reach 6.5 billion US dollars by 2034; If we separately count the specialized equipment for functional gummies, the growth rate can reach 8-12%, and the Asia Pacific region is the largest incremental market (accounting for over 36% of the global market share).

2. Chinese market (equipment)
The domestic gummy making machine market is expected to reach approximately 1.28 billion yuan in 2025 and 1.4 billion yuan in 2026, with a year-on-year increase of 9.4%. The market will shift from simply adding new production lines to a dual drive of new production lines and existing technological upgrades (with technological upgrade orders accounting for approximately 58% of annual orders)
-The entire candy machinery market is expected to reach a scale of approximately 9.2 billion yuan by 2026, with gummy equipment being the strongest growth segment; It is estimated that 2400 jelly/gel candy production lines will be in operation nationwide in 2026
-Price range: 800000 to 2 million yuan for small-scale experimental lines; Mass production pouring line of 3-8 million yuan; High end intelligent turnkey whole line of 10-20 million+; The unit price of imported top starch molding line can reach 20-40 million yuan.
2、 Market driven factors
1. Consumer Health: Traditional Snacks → Functional Nutritional Gummies
Vitamins, probiotics, collagen, sleep aid, eye protection, sugar free/zero sucrose, plant-based (pectin/agar instead of gelatin vegetarian gummies) for rapid increase in dosage; Higher equipment requirements have been put forward for low-temperature boiling, precise addition of trace amounts, and temperature control accuracy of ± 0.5 ℃, which cannot be produced by ordinary old-fashioned gummies machines.
2. The outbreak of OEM mode for contract manufacturing
Most new consumer brands have a low willingness to build their own factories and choose to produce through contract factories; A large number of domestic OEM enterprises in South and East China have expanded their GMP clean grade gummy candy workshops, bringing in a large number of equipment orders.
3. Domestic substitution acceleration
In 2021, the proportion of domestically produced high-end gummies in the production line was only 41%, and by 2025, the proportion of domestically produced mid-range high-end gummies will increase to over 63%; Domestic equipment has a short delivery cycle, low after-sales costs, and supports formula and process matching services, gradually replacing imported equipment such as Tanis and Aasted; The imported equipment only retains the super large starch mold project with a capacity of 10000 tons.
4. Food safety and regulations are forcing an upgrade
The new version of food production standards requires full data traceability, visual monitoring, and low manual labor, and old semi-automatic production lines are facing the need for elimination and transformation.
5. Overseas export dividends
Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America have invested in building candy factories, and domestic soft candy equipment manufacturers' export orders continue to rise.




3. Downstream product end (underlying logic of demand)

The domestic functional soft candy finished product market is expected to reach approximately 12 billion yuan by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 15% -18% from 2025 to 2030, far higher than traditional leisure snacks; The outbreak of OEM manufacturing mode has led to a large number of OEM factories building/upgrading production lines, directly driving equipment procurement demand.

3、 Five core development trends in 2026
Trend 1: Equipment shifts from general purpose to customized production lines for functional gummies
-Low temperature boiling system: protects heat sensitive raw materials such as probiotics and active proteins;
-Multi channel micro precise feeding system (independent servo pump for essence, pigment and effective raw materials);
-Dual color, sandwich, bursting, 3D three-dimensional modular pouring unit;
-The parallel development of the starch mold Mogul production line and the starch free clean pouring production line has led to a rapid increase in demand for starch free clean gummies equipment.




Trend 2: Digitization and intelligence become standard features
-MES docking, one click recipe calling, and full traceability of production data;
-AI visual online quality inspection (automatic removal of missing materials, deformation, and weight defects);
-IoT remote operation and maintenance, fault warning, predictive maintenance;
-Flexible and fast mold and formula changes, with production time compressed to within 30 minutes, suitable for multi SKU small batch popular new products.




Trend 3: The turnkey project model has become the mainstream procurement method
Customers are no longer purchasing individual machines (such as sugar cookers, pouring machines, and cooling tunnels), but are more inclined to provide one-stop turnkey services for the entire production line, including factory layout, formula and process support, installation and commissioning, personnel training, and trial production; The ability to process formulas has become the core competitiveness of equipment manufacturers.




Trend 4: Green Energy Conservation and Clean Production Upgrade
The high energy consumption in the sugar boiling section has become a cost pain point for factories; The demand for waste heat recovery, vacuum low-temperature boiling, and energy-saving cooling tunnels has increased; Clean and hygienic design (mirror polishing, easy disassembly and cleaning, reducing dead corners) suitable for health grade GMP workshops.




Trend 5: Clear market segmentation and differentiated competitive landscape
1) High end market: Domestic top players (Yitesai, Diantianhui, Bochuan, Runyuhengda) benchmark imports and undertake high-end orders from large domestic groups and overseas;
2) Mid end mainstream markets: Shanghai Sien, Heqiang, Hangzhou Jihan, targeting medium-sized contract factories;
3) Economic market: Small and medium-sized manufacturers in Shandong and Shanghai, specializing in simple pouring lines with small production capacity of 80-150kg/h;
4) Imported brand: only serving super large capacity starch mold projects and multinational high-end factories;
The industry concentration has increased, and the total market share of the top five domestic manufacturers continues to rise.




4、 Opportunities and Risks in the Next 3 Years
opportunity
1. Pet nutrition gummies, specialty foods, and pharmaceutical grade chewable gummies open up a new incremental market;
2. The demand for three-level testing equipment from "small-scale trial to pilot scale production" has exploded, and there is a strong demand for brand research and development sampling;
3. The "the Belt and Road" overseas candy factory construction has brought continuous export growth.




Risk
1. Downstream popular soft candy products have a short lifecycle, and there is a risk of overcapacity in expanding production;
2. The homogenization of low-end and low-priced devices leads to fierce price competition;
3. The regulation of functional food is becoming stricter, and the production capacity of non compliant contract factories is being cleared, eliminating the demand for low-end equipment.




5、 Summarize one sentence to judge
The gummy equipment industry is no longer simply selling mechanical equipment, but has transformed into a comprehensive solution track for food technology, intelligent equipment, and digital systems; The future growth will mainly come from the transformation and upgrading of new production capacity of functional nutritional gummies, as well as the continuous replacement of imported high-end markets by domestic equipment.