Today, IGD estimates the global food retail market to be worth $3,496 billion (€2, 606 billion).
According to new figures from market research and training body IGD, China will become the world's second largest food retail market by 2020 behind the US.
In 2003 the Chinese food market was 35 per cent of the size of the US market; by 2020 this will figure will rise to a considerable 82 per cent.
Food manufacturers and ingredients suppliers are turning to the East to bolster eroded margins; and to keep up with their customers, the multiple global retailers.
Their rising power is putting constant pressure on ingredients companies and end product suppliers to keep up with the pace, deliver products at competitive prices and guarantee supplies.
Driving the market in China is the increased spending power and changing eating habits of the country's 1.3 billion people who are transforming China's food sector, both domestically and in foreign trade.
China food industry sales took off in the mid 1990s rising from under 100 billion yuan (€9.2bn) in 1991 to well over 400 billion yuan (€37bn) just ten years later.
IGD forecasts that by 2020 the US will account for 19 per cent of the global food retail market, a decline from 22 per cent in 2003. By contrast, the proportion contributed by China will nearly double during this period, from 8 per cent to 15 per cent.
The report predicts the global food retail market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.8 per cent, to be worth $6,353 billion in 2020. Growth is forecast for all global regions, with the largest annual growth forecast in Central Asia (including India), Central & Eastern Europe (including Russia) and Asia Pacific (including China).
The top five food retail markets in 2020 are predicted to be the US, China, Japan, India and Russia.
Europe, writes IGD, will have a 30 per cent slice in 2020.