BEIJING — China's major food processing companies recorded combined profits of 535.96 billion yuan (about $82.92 billion) in the first 11 months of 2020, up 6.8 percent year-on-year, official data showed.

Profit growth at these enterprises, whose annual revenues exceed 20 million yuan from their main operations, was 4.4 percentage points higher than that of all industrial sectors, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

In breakdown, agricultural and sideline products processing companies reported 169.35 billion yuan in combined profits, up 8.9 percent year-on-year, while that of liquor, beverage and tea manufacturers rose 5.6 percent year-on-year to 208.02 billion yuan, MIIT data showed.

In November 2020, retail sales of beverage jumped 21.6 percent year-on-year, while that of grain, oil and food commodities went up 7.7 percent.

Combined profits of China's major food processing companies climbed 9.4 percent year-on-year to 485.26 billion yuan in the first 10 months of 2020.