With the opening of two plants in China on two consecutive days this week, Archer Daniels Midland Company has increased its capacity to serve growing regional demand for value-added food-ingredients and animal-nutrition products.
 
Earlier today, ADM CEO Juan Luciano joined government officials and representatives from Matsutani Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., for a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the northeastern coastal city of Tianjin, marking the opening of a plant to produce Fibersol soluble dietary fiber. And on Thursday, Mr. Luciano stood alongside officials from the eastern city of Nanjing to mark the opening of a feed-premix plant—ADM’s third in the country.
 
Fibersol—sold and marketed through an ADM/Matsutani joint venture—enables food and beverage manufacturers to increase the fiber content of their products without impacting flavor, color or viscosity. With the global market for soluble dietary fiber growing at an annual rate of 13 percent, the Tianjin plant’s production capacity of 15,000 metric tons per year will help address food industry customers’ increasing demand.
 
“As more and more Chinese citizens enter the middle class, we expect that demand for Fibersol and other value-added food ingredients made by ADM will remain robust well into the future,” Mr. Luciano said in remarks at today’s ribbon-cutting event.
 
Meanwhile, the Nanjing facility will manufacture nutritional premixes that can be added to animal rations to promote good health and optimal growth. Such premixes typically contain various vitamins and minerals, amino acids such as lysine and threonine, and other ingredients. ADM will manufacture an estimated 30,000 metric tons of premix products per year at the Nanjing facility. The company also owns premix production facilities in Tianjin and in Dalian, and a fourth is currently under construction in Zhangzhou.
 
“As China continues transitioning from a manufacturing-driven economy to a consumption-based economy, its middle class will continue to expand, and meat consumption will continue to grow,” Mr. Luciano said, noting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated that China’s production of pork, poultry, and beef will increase by about 30 percent by 2024. “We therefore are confident that demand for the livestock feeds and feed ingredients we produce will continue to increase over the course of the next decade,” he added.
 
By expanding ADM’s geographic footprint in two value-added businesses, the Fibersol and feed premix facilities advance the strategic growth component of ADM’s framework for growing returns. That framework also includes efforts to optimize the company’s existing businesses and drive operational efficiencies at its production facilities.
 
ADM began operations in China in the mid-1990s, when the company acquired an animal feed premix plant in Dalian, in the country’s northeast. In recent years, ADM has grown to become one of the top exporters of agricultural products to Asia, and the company markets an extensive range of food ingredients and animal feeds and feed premixes through its network of sales offices located throughout the Asia-Pacific region.