Bottle Water from China

In 1987, China issued first time the national standard of drinkable natural mineral water GB8537-87. Thanks to the adoption of this standard, the bottled water industry begins to develop very quickly and in 1989,another national standard—the assortments of soft drinks GB10789-89 was made public. Bottled water was listed as one of the eight assortments of beverages. In 1990’s, with the raising of the Chinese standard of living, the demand for bottled water increased rapidly by 20% annually. By 1994, there were about 100 bottled water enterprises with output of 3million tons. 1999, saw about 1000 manufacturers and 4.11 million tons. In 2000, the yearly capacity of bottled water increased to 5.54 million tons and surpassed the carbonated drinks, becoming the biggest soft drink among all the beverages.Starting in 2002, the industry continued to grow at a 20% annual rate for the next 4 years.In July 2007 the central government published a modified version of drinking water qualification standard GB5749-2006. The market value of bottled water in China in 2007 was now at 30 billions in RMB.