US food giant Cargill has committed US$112 million to expand the capacity of its corn processing facility in Songyuan in the Jilin province, China. This is part of a joint initiative with the Songyuan government to build the Sino-US Cargill Biotech Industrial Park, featuring the Cargill Food Safety and Technology Center.
“Cargill has made significant investments in Songyuan, which is welcomed by us,” said Wang Zilian, mayor of Songyuan Municipal Government. “I believe the new investment and projects will help boost the prosperity of local farmers and also benefit the growth of local corn processing industry.”
The park, which occupies 3.71 million sqm, is designed to facilitate both corn processing and trading, with a processing capability of up to two million tons per year by 2020. Future warehouses will be built for commodities such as corn and starches.
As one of the most important facilities in the park, the Cargill Food Safety and Technology Center will focus on testing, research and training in the area of food safety, as well as process improvement and product development for the corn processing and food ingredients industries.
“China is crucial market with amazing vitality. We will continue to work as partners with China to build sustainable agriculture and invest in rural areas,” said Dave MacLennan, Cargill Chairman and CEO at the foundation laying ceremony for Cargill Food Safety and Technology Center.
AIPU Food Industry Co., LTD is one of the companies that has established its presence in the park. As one of the key partners of Cargill in China, AIPU is constructing a 150,000-ton project to produce caramel pigment, leveraging products and services from Cargill and the park.
CEO Michael Wei commented: “AIPU is happy to put some of our key projects here in the park. The park provides us with resources, infrastructure and value-added services that we need. Currently, our project is proceeding smoothly."
Cargill said the company will continue to invest in the park in the coming years.
Ongoing commitments to China
For Cargill, the Jilin Province investment further demonstrates its growing commitment to long-term investments in China. Recently, the company announced a US$40 million investment in Yichun of Jiangxi Province to build an animal nutrition plant with an annual production capacity of 120,000 tons of premix and 60,000 tons per year of speciality animal feed.
In February 2019, Cargill also opened its first beauty care office in Shanghai supporting the APAC region. The facility includes an application laboratory to deliver nature-derived, label-friendly and highly functional ingredients to Asian personal care markets.
These early 2019 investments build on hundreds of millions the company invested in China in 2018 to expand the capacity of its starches and sweeteners, animal protein and agricultural supply chain businesses in China.
Since it started investment in mainland China in the 1980s, the company has invested around $7.5 billion.