Boost for specialty ingredients in Asia–Pacific

Ingredion has announced US$60 million of planned investments to grow its specialty food ingredients business in Asia–Pacific.

The company’s specialty capital investment projects include:

• a 20% expansion of its tapioca modified food starch capacity in Thailand along with state-of-the-art upgrades to its wastewater treatment facilities;
• more than doubling the capacity and increasing the regulatory standards of its specialty rice starch and rice flour business in Thailand, which it acquired in 2017;
• completing a 30% expansion of its modified food starch capacity and further improving its corn wet milling capacity in China.

“These strategic investments are designed to accelerate our growth and strengthen our manufacturing network in Asia to meet increased consumer demand,” said Jim Zallie, Ingredion President and Chief Executive Officer. “Growing our global specialties business to $2 billion in annual sales by 2022 is an integral part of our strategy to deliver long-term profitable growth and enhance shareholder value.”

“We see growing demand for both clean label ingredients and specialty starch-based texturisers throughout the region,” said Valdirene Licht, Ingredion Senior Vice President and President, Asia–Pacific.

“The investments will allow us to continue to evolve with our customers to provide innovative, on-trend solutions. Our local team has extensive applications and formulating expertise combined with the broadest and deepest portfolio of waxy corn and tapioca based specialty starches and a successful track record of supporting customers in the region for more than three decades. We’re now excited to be building our on-trend rice ingredient business and we will continue to make further investments in Asia that benefit our customers globally.”

“The actions being taken in Asia are consistent with our global strategy to invest in our specialty starch franchise around the world and expand our capabilities to innovate and offer more customised solutions for our customers around the world,” Zallie added.

Ingredion operates four manufacturing facilities in Thailand and three manufacturing facilities in China.