The biodegradable mulch industry faces a period of favorable policy opportunities and huge potential for future development.

Degradable mulch film is a new type of agricultural mulch film that can be degraded into water, carbon dioxide, minerals and other non-toxic and harmless substances to the environment. Agricultural mulch film refers to the general term for plastic films used in agricultural production. During the crop sowing period, it plays an important role in effectively controlling soil temperature and humidity, reducing water and nutrient loss, and maintaining stable crop production. It plays an important role in the crop production process.

Initially, agricultural mulch films were generally made of non-degradable plastic films. This type of mulch film was difficult to recycle, seriously polluted the environment and soil, and was not conducive to agricultural production. Therefore, in recent years, against the backdrop of continuous improvement in domestic related technical levels, degradable mulch films have emerged and become one of the most promising subcategories in the agricultural mulch film market.

Currently, there are various types of degradable mulch films in China. According to different sources of raw materials, degradable mulch films can be divided into two categories: biological mulch films and petroleum-based mulch films. According to different degradation methods, degradable mulch films can be divided into polylactic acid (PLA), polycaprolactone (PCL), dibasic acid glycol copolyesters (PBS, PBAT, etc.), polyhydroxyalkanoate polymers ( Biodegradable mulch films including PHAs) mulch films; photodegradable mulch films mainly based on photodegradable PE mulch films; water-degradable mulch films mainly based on starch-based mulch films.

Among them, biodegradable mulch film is currently the mainstream product in the domestic degradable mulch film market. At present, against the background of the continuous improvement of the domestic degradable mulch film technology level, its production capacity has been continuously improved and its scale has been continuously expanded. According to the “China Biodegradable Mulch Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report 2022-2026” released by the Industrial Research Center , in 2021, the domestic biodegradable mulch film production capacity will be approximately 514,000 tons, and the market size will be approximately 1.68 billion yuan.

At the same time, the development of my country’s biodegradable mulch industry is currently strongly supported by national policies. Specifically, the “Notice on Carrying out Pilot Work on the Scientific Use and Recycling of Mulch Films” issued by the state in March 2022 proposed to focus on supporting the promotion of thickened high-strength mulch films and fully biodegradable mulch films; in March 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the ” “Technical Guiding Opinions on the Scientific Use and Recycling Pilot of Mulch Films in 2022” points out that in key film-using areas, 5 million acres of fully biodegradable mulch films will be promoted to various regions this year.

In addition, the national standard “Degradation Performance and Labeling Requirements for Biodegradable Plastics and Products” officially implemented in June 2022 has laid a good foundation for the standardized development of the domestic degradable plastic film industry. At this stage, the development of my country’s biodegradable mulch industry is facing unprecedented favorable policies and national standards, and the industry’s development trend is improving. At present, domestic degradable mulch companies mainly include Tianzhuang Environmental Protection Technology, Kingfa Technology, Tongcheng New Materials, Prince New Materials, Dawn Co., Ltd., etc.

Industrial analysts said that degradable mulch film has various characteristics such as ecological cleanliness, compound efficiency, and green environmental protection, which is different from traditional Compared with agricultural mulch, it has the advantages of being green and pollution-free, with strong adhesion ability, and good heat absorption and humidification effect. It is an important tool to achieve the sustainable development of agriculture in our country, and the industry has good development prospects. In the future, with continued favorable policies, the market penetration rate of my country’s biodegradable mulch film will continue to increase, and the industry has huge development potential.