Two top Japanese food makers have announced expansion plans in northern China to take advantage of rising demand for premium foreign food in the country.
Facing shrinking demand at home, Kikkoman Corp. and Yakult Honsha Co. are both boosting output in China as incomes rise and a growing middle class worries more about the quality of China’s domestically-made food.
Kikkoman will set up a joint venture with Shijiazhuang Zhenji Brewing Group Co. in Hebei Province this autumn to manufacture soy sauce and other seasonings.
Already established in the south and east of China, Kikkoman said the time was ripe to expand all over China.
“The price of Kikkoman soy sauce is on average much more expensive than local production, but we are set to win over more customers with Kikkoman’s superior taste and quality,” a spokesman for the company told just-food.
Meanwhile, Yakult plans to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Tianjin by next summer and begin production of its Yakult probiotic fermented milk drink at the start of 2011.
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