Employees work in a sausage factory in Yutian County, Tangshan City, north China's Hebei Province, Jan. 12, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's food industry registered steady growth in 2022 and is expected to maintain growth momentum this year, according to an industrial association.

Major food companies with an annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 2.8 million U.S. dollars) reported revenues of 9.8 trillion yuan last year, marking a yearly increase of 5.6 percent, said Zhang Chonghe, head of the China National Light Industry Council.

Their profit went up 9.6 percent year on year to 681.5 billion yuan, Zhang said during a just-concluded conference on China's food industry.

"The food sector has shown strong momentum and resilience," said Yu Xuejun, director of the National Food Management Center of China Light Industry.

Benefiting from the continuous expansion of China's domestic market, the food industry is expected to maintain robust growth this year, and revenues of major companies are projected to rise by about 7 percent, said Yu.

Despite the optimism, Zhang said the sector faces multiple challenges including grim international food security and shrinking profit margins, and called for greater efforts to develop industrial clusters to fuel future development.