As the world's largest maker of toothpaste, China's 5.2 billion tubes earned toothpaste producers a net profit of more than 70 million US dollars in 2005, the China Oral Care Products Industry Association said on Friday.

Xiang Jianqiang, permanent vice executive chairman of the Association, said that China's toothpaste makers not only supply people at home, but export to consumers in at least 80 countries and regions worldwide.

China, which began turning out toothpaste in 1922, only made 2,100 tubes of toothpaste by the time of national liberation in 1949. And almost all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had had their own toothpaste factories in the 1960's along with the rapid growth of toothpaste production around the country.

With the entry of a couple of foreign-funded toothpaste enterprises in China's market in the 1990's, China's toothpaste output has increased markedly. Currently, the country's per capita toothpaste volume has reached that of those moderately developed nations in the world.

As part of its effort to guarantee and improve the quality of toothpaste, the industry established a toothpaste research and development center, Xiang said.

Source: Xinhua