Japan’s Megmilk Snow Brand Co. is to join forces with Singapore’s Agrocorp International to set up a factory to make plant-based dairy ingredients.

The facility will be located in Malaysia and will make pea-based ingredients to sell to plant-based manufacturers – and for use in a consumer brand marketed by Agrocorp.

The companies told Just Food the factory is expected to start production in late 2025.

For Megmilk, one of Japan’s largest dairy companies, the venture is part of its latest “medium-term management plan”, which includes an entry into plant-based food.

A spokesperson for Megmilk, which will own 49% of the venture, said the company will first sell the ingredients on a B2B basis but does see future opportunities to launch its own consumer-facing products.

“We will own the exclusive rights to sell the plant-based food raw materials manufactured by the company to the Japanese market,” the spokesperson said.

“We expect to sell the raw materials manufactured by the joint venture to existing users of our commercial products business and to Japanese food processing manufacturers. In the future, we will develop and sell products utilising the raw materials in our group.

“In addition, we are looking to sell PBF products in the global market through overseas development of our products and collaboration with Japanese food processing manufacturers.”

One of the customers for the new facility will be Agrocorp for its plant-based brand HerbYvore.

“Agrocorp already has a downstream plant-based brand, HerbYvore, that utilises pea protein as its protein source. HerbYvore is addressing the gap in dairy-free cheeses and will launch Singapore’s first plant-based, nut-free cheese range next month,” a spokesperson for Agrocorp said.