CJ chases bigger U.S. market share with new lysine factory

CJ Cheiljedang Corp., South Korea’s top food maker, has opened a new lysine production facility in the United States as it seeks a bigger portion of the global biomarket, the company said Wednesday.

The factory in Fort Dodge, Iowa, built with an investment of $320 million, will annually produce more than 100,000 tons of lysine, an essential amino acid used in making animal feeds, to be sold in the U.S., it said.

Cargill, the world’s largest trader of agricultural commodities, will provide the plant with starch sweetener, a key ingredient of lysine.

“Starting with an Indonesian factory with a capacity of 100,000 tons in 1991, (CJ’s) lysine business has made a leap to become the global leader by completing construction of a 100,000-ton factory here,” CJ Group CEO Sohn Kyung-sik said during an opening ceremony in Fort Dodge, which was also attended by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.

CJ said it will make aggressive efforts to raise its share in the U.S. market, which is dominated by Archer Daniels Midland of the U.S., Japan’s Ajinomoto Corp., and Germany’s Evonik.

The U.S. lysine market reached 450,000 tons in terms of demand last year, the world’s third-largest after China’s 700,000 tons and Europe’s 600,000 tons. (Yonhap)