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

The value-added industrial output of food manufacturers rose 9.1 percent year on year in the January-July period, and that of agricultural byproduct processors went up 10 percent, according to MIIT.

In the first seven months, retail sales of the food industry witnessed robust growth, with that of grain, oil and food up 10.6 percent from a year earlier to 929.07 billion yuan (about $143.24 billion).

Retail sales in the beverage sector surged 27.9 percent year on year to 158.71 billion yuan, while sales in the tobacco and alcohol sector registered a 29.6 percent yearly increase to 258.81 billion yuan, MIIT data showed.

In the first half of the year, food enterprises with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan raked in profits of 306.95 billion yuan, up 17 percent year on year.