【Bio-based Energy and Materials】It is learned that on September 18th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued the "Work Plan for Stabilizing Growth in the Light Industry (2025-2026)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), aiming to promote the qualitative improvement and reasonable growth of the light industry through a series of measures.
This policy not only focuses on the quality improvement and upgrading of traditional light industry sectors, but also clearly supports the development of emerging fields such as bio-based, degradable materials, and bio-manufacturing in the process of green, intelligent, and high-end transformation, bringing a new round of policy benefits and development opportunities to relevant enterprises.
Main objective:
From 2025 to 2026, the light industry will play a more prominent role in maintaining economic growth, promoting consumption and benefiting the people's livelihood. Key industries will maintain stable growth in scale, and the business performance of enterprises will remain basically stable. New growth points such as smart home products, elderly and infant and child products, and sports and leisure fashion products will develop rapidly, leading to continuous improvement in consumption capacity. 300 upgraded and innovative products will be newly promoted, and 10 characteristic industrial production areas with a scale of over 100 billion yuan will be continuously cultivated.
The plan arranges 15 tasks in 5 aspects: focusing on optimizing supply, facilitating the expansion of consumption, maintaining international competitive advantages, optimizing the industrial ecosystem, and enhancing the momentum for high-quality development.
Among them, there are many related to developing bio-based and degradable materials as well as biological manufacturing.
01
The policy clearly supports technological innovation in bio-based and degradable materials.
The "Plan" clearly states in the "Promoting Green Development" section:
"Guide enterprises to carry out technological innovation in areas such as bio-based materials, degradable materials, water-soluble films, water-based inks, and water-based cleaning agents, and vigorously develop bio-based degradable material products."
This means that the country will promote the research and application of bio-based and degradable materials in the light industry sector at the policy level, encouraging enterprises to replace traditional high-polluting and difficult-to-degrade materials, especially in industries such as packaging, cosmetics, and plastic products. Relevant enterprises should focus on:
Technical R&D support: The government encourages the research and development of green and low-carbon technologies. Enterprises can actively apply for relevant funds and projects such as green manufacturing and technological transformation.
Standard system construction: The country will establish and improve a green standard system, promote the formulation of standards such as carbon footprint and energy efficiency, and enterprises should make preparations in advance for obtaining green certifications to align with international standards.
Supply chain collaboration: Encourage the establishment of green factories and green supply chains. Biobased material enterprises can strengthen cooperation with downstream enterprises such as home appliances, packaging, and cosmetics.
02
Biological manufacturing has been listed as a key area for fostering growth.
The plan mentions "biomanufacturing" six times and regards it along with smart home, the silver-haired economy, and ice and snow equipment as new growth engines. The specific contents include:
III. Work Measures
(1) Focus on optimizing supply
Accelerate product innovation. Through measures such as the "chain leader system" and "challenge-and-take-on", accelerate breakthroughs in key technologies in areas like smart home appliances, bio-manufacturing, and high-end bicycles.
(2) Facilitating the Expansion of Consumption
Accelerate the promotion and application of new business forms and models. Cultivate a number of pilot production platforms in fields such as batteries, daily chemicals, and biomanufacturing based on local conditions, and accelerate the transfer and transformation of technological achievements.
(4) Optimize the industrial ecosystem
Promote the coordinated development of the industrial chain. Facing future major consumer demands, establish cross-industry and cross-disciplinary communication mechanisms in fields such as smart home, wearable devices, and bio-manufacturing, to enhance the efficiency of coordinated innovation in the industrial chain.
Promote rational industrial layout. Encourage and support the holding of industrial transfer and cooperation activities in fields such as green home furnishing, bio-manufacturing, food, and leather, to drive enterprises to transfer in a stepwise manner to the central and western regions.
Strengthening enterprise stability and support. Cultivate several world-class enterprises in fields such as home appliances, wine, and dairy products. Also, foster a number of high-tech enterprises, single-category champion enterprises, and specialized "little giant" enterprises in areas like batteries, biological manufacturing, high-performance plastics, and specialty paper.
IV. Safeguard Measures
(3) Strengthen implementation and organization. The light industry provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong and Guangdong should play a greater role, maintaining the stability of their traditional advantageous industries and fostering and expanding new engines for industries such as bio-manufacturing, smart home appliances, the elderly economy, and winter sports.
These measures indicate that biomanufacturing is not only a technological direction but also an important component of the country's strategic emerging industries. Enterprises can take advantage of the policy momentum to accelerate the industrialization process and expand their application scenarios in fields such as food, medicine, daily chemicals, and materials.
This year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued several documents to strongly support bio-based and bio-manufacturing:
On August 19th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Health Commission jointly launched a solicitation for innovative technologies in biological manufacturing applications in the food processing sector.
Click to read: Two ministries issue a document! Regarding food bio-manufacturing
On July 31st, the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially announced the "List of Flagship Products in Biomanufacturing (First Batch)", with a total of 36 products included. Among them, companies such as Kai Sai Bio, Huaheng Bio, Jindan Technology, Weigong Workshop, and Lan Jing Microbial were listed as well, representing many bio-based chemical and material enterprises.
Click to read: Big News! The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued a document, and Kai Sai, Huanheng, Jin Dan, Weigong, and Lan Jing are all on the list!
On July 7th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "Public Notice of Typical Application Cases of Artificial Intelligence in the Field of Biomanufacturing (First Batch)"
Click to read: The AI + Biomanufacturing trend is booming! 9 cases involving protein design have received national-level recognition!
On June 23rd, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture jointly issued the "Notice on Conducting the Recommendation Work for Typical Cases of Innovation and Development of Non-Cereal Bio-based Materials Industry by the Two Departments"
Click to read: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued another document, concerning the non-food-based bio-based materials industry!
On June 10th, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the General Office of the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Cultivation Work of Pilot Production Capacity Construction Platforms for Bio-manufacturing". It proposed that by 2027, efforts would be made to cultivate more than 20 pilot production platforms, laying the groundwork for industrial scale-up.
Click to read: Breaking through the final mile of industrialization! Two ministries have established a national team for pilot production in biotechnology manufacturing. Applications are due on July 11th.
On March 4th, the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice, soliciting public opinions on the "Task List for the Competitive Challenge of High-Performance Bioreactors (Draft for Comment)", aiming to enhance the supply guarantee capability of key equipment for biomanufacturing and strengthen the integrated innovation of "linking components" such as core components, key parts and operating systems of bioreactors.
Click to read: High-performance bioreactor project named and launched! Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issues document for public consultation
On February 26th, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice titled "List of the First Batch of Advanced and Applicable Technologies", which included four biomanufacturing technologies.
Click to read: 4 Biomanufacturing Projects, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Releases "First Batch List of Advanced Applicable Technologies"
On January 20th, the National Development and Reform Commission, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and the National Energy Administration, issued the "Green Technology Promotion Catalogue (2024 Edition)". Among them, four biobased technologies were selected.
Click to read: Four biobased technologies have been included in the "Green Technology Promotion Catalogue (2024 Edition)" document issued by eight departments including the National Development and Reform Commission!
