Corn Starch Price Chart & Market Analysis 2026

Corn Starch Price Information Spec: China national standards;99%;99%|food grade;Food grade;Grade 1｜Moisture ≤14%

Newest Price 467.85

Price Date 20261011

Day's Change -7.05

Day's Range 467.85 - 460.8

Month's Change -11.94

Month's Range 483.7 - 471.76

Year's Change +457.38

Year's Range 457.38 - 0

Opinions

Why is corn starch the default thickener in Chinese cooking, and where does it fall short?

For buyers, the practical takeaway is that corn starch demand is split between food service and industrial users, so contract pricing should track both. Watch downstream papermaking and starch sugar demand too, since those segments absorb a large share of volume and can offset weak retail kitchen demand.

What drives corn starch prices and supply in China's market?

A useful angle is the five-year cycle framing: starch consumption and profitability tend to move in roughly five-year waves with two-to-three-year sub-cycles. Buyers planning annual contracts should map their volumes against that rhythm rather than reacting to single-month price spikes.

Is China's corn starch capacity still growing, or has it entered oversupply?

The oversupply story extends downstream. Starch sugar, MSG and alcohol from the same corn chain are also capacity-heavy with single-digit gross margins, so producers are chasing niche outlets like citric acid, functional sugars and polylactic acid. Buyers should expect sellers to compete hard on price for standard-grade starch.

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Corn Starch

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Overview

Corn starch (cornflour, maize starch, CAS 9005-25-8) is a fine white to pale-yellow powder with strong moisture absorbency, widely used as a thickener, binder, and coating agent.

Food: the most widely used culinary starch; suited to battering and dusting for deep-fried foods such as fried chicken wings and small crispy pork, and to velveting meat for smooth stir-fries, since its sauces stay thick after cooling.
Thickening: standard choice for gravies and sauces; known as "shengfen" in Guangdong and Hong Kong.
Bakery and confectionery: added to cheesecakes to lower gluten strength and improve texture.
Industrial: a primary corn-processing product feeding starch sugar, beer, pharmaceuticals, paper, chemicals, and modified starch.
Biomaterials: the starting point for polylactic acid (PLA) and other biodegradable materials via the corn–starch–sugar–lactic acid route.

China is the world's second-largest producer after the United States, with output growing steadily since the 1990s; capacity is concentrated among the top ten producers, and the industry has long faced overcapacity and low utilisation. Production is centred in Shandong and the Northeast, supplying East and South China, with modest exports and negligible imports.

Key domestic producers:
Zhucheng Xingmao – leading corn starch and deep-processing group.
Meihua Group – major starch and amino acid producer.
Fufeng Group – starch, starch sugar, and fermentation products.
Jineng Golden Corn – corn starch, modified starch, and lactic acid chain.
Yufeng Group – corn starch and downstream processing.

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Corn Starch Price Information Spec: China national standards;99%;99%|food grade;Food grade;Grade 1｜Moisture ≤14%

Opinions

Why is corn starch the default thickener in Chinese cooking, and where does it fall short?

What drives corn starch prices and supply in China's market?

Is China's corn starch capacity still growing, or has it entered oversupply?

People Also Watch

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