BEIJING — China's food industry reported stable expansion in terms of production and sales in the first 10 months of the year, data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed.

The value-added industrial output of food manufacturers rose 7.8 percent year-on-year in the January-October period, and that of agricultural byproduct processors went up 8 percent, according to MIIT.

In the first 10 months, retail sales of the food industry witnessed robust growth, with that of grain, oil and food up 10.3 percent from a year earlier to 1.35 trillion yuan (about $212.09 billion).

Retail sales in the beverage sector surged 21.8 percent year-on-year to 230.1 billion yuan, while sales in the tobacco and alcohol sector registered a 24.5 percent yearly increase to 381.7 billion yuan, MIIT data showed.

In the first 10 months of the year, food enterprises with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan raked in profits of 475.7 billion yuan, up 4 percent year-on-year.