The global Gluconic acid market was million US$ in 2014 and expected to reach million US$ by 2020 growing at a CAGR of 9.1% during the forecasted period 2015-2020. Gluconic acid is a mild organic acid derived from fermentation of glucose. It is non corrosive, nontoxic and biodegradable acid in nature.
Gluconic acid and its derivative principally sodium gluconate has wide application in food and pharmaceuticals while it is also used in chemicals, metallurgical, agriculture and animal feed industry. Due to its various functional properties it is used as supplements, in cleaning agents, in agriculture products, food products and in metallurgy applications also.
The major driver for the market are wide applications in food and pharmaceutical market, innovation in technology, economic biotechnological production process, increased demand of biodegradable acid and environmental concerns. Gluconic acid are non-corrosive, easily biodegradable, nontoxic and non-volatile acid and due to this properties its demand in the market is increasing. In addition to other production process of gluconic acid, biotech fermentation process has proved to be a boon for manufacturers which has increased its market growth. However there are some restraining factor for the market also such as high capital requirement and production costs. The raw material required for production is glucose which are costly as compare to other carbon source and thus increasing production cost.
Market segmentation includes by type, by application, and by geography. Market by type is further segmented into gluconic acid, glucono delta lactone, sodium salt of gluconic acid, calcium salt of gluconic acid and others which include Iron, Zinc, and Copper and potassium salts of gluconic acid. Sodium gluconate and glucono delta lactone has the major market due to its increased demand in food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. Market segmentation by application type includes food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, agriculture and others. Food consist of largest market share due to its high use as an acidulant in meat processing industry. In addition its medicinal application in pharmaceuticals such as in calcium therapy, treatment of anemia has led pharmaceuticals to be the fastest growing segment in the application type.
Market segmentation according to geography includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and Africa. Asia pacific and Europe are the major market of Gluconic acid followed by North America. China dominates the global gluconic acid market by largest share while Japan, Netherland are the fastest growing countries.
Growing demand of organic acid has created good opportunity for gluconic acid in the market. The key players in the market are Roquette, BASF, Sigma Aldrich, Novozymes, Kerry among others. The major competitors prefers investment in research and development to improve the product quality and successful market strategies to maintain their position.