Helping to meet the needs of the world’s largest consumer market.
As a key growth market for LDC, and one of the world’s largest consumer markets, reinforcing our activities in China is a strategic priority, building on almost 50 years of presence in the country.
As domestic demand for protein and high-quality food and feed products accelerates, we are exploring and pursuing opportunities to expand our presence and strengthen our capacity in China, through collaboration with trusted local partners.
Recent agreements with partners in Rizhao, Shandong Province and Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, are part of this growth strategy – the latter signed with our long-term local partner, River & Ocean Cereals and Oils Jiangsu (ROCO), to build a new oilseeds crushing facility in Gangcheng Food Industrial Park.
Situated on a 60,000m2 plot of land near our existing Zhangjiagang processing facility, the new plant will double our capacity to supply soybean meal and refined vegetable oils to eastern China, currently at 7,500 tons of meal and oil daily.
“The agreement marks another milestone in a 20-year partnership with ROCO, with whom we are very pleased to work on this project, as we reinforce our presence and ability to meet China’s consumption needs, now and for the future,” added Jerrity Chen, Head of Grains & Oilseeds for North Asia at LDC.
With construction due to start in February 2021, the plant is expected to be fully operational in 2022.
As we work toward a more secure and sustainable future, reinforcing our capacity to supply grains and oilseeds products is one part of our plans to grow our business in the country as a whole.
We are also investing in China’s future of food in collaboration with like-minded companies – for instance through our agreement with Donlink Group to build a Food Industrial Park in Nansha, Guangdong Province, which will span several sectors: feed processing, high-tech ecological aquaculture, food innovation, plant-based clean energy and others.
“The COVID-19 crisis underlined even more clearly our key role to provide essential food and feed products to China, whose growth we have observed and accompanied for almost 50 years,” said James Zhou, Head of LDC’s North Asia Region. “This experience reinforces our conviction that our strategic plans to integrate along the value chain, and to strengthen our capacity to meet China’s needs, are the right ones to continue to grow with the country.