The world's number two vitamin maker BASF officially opened its new vitamin B2 plant in Korea today, increasing its production capacity for the food and feed grade vitamin and reinforcing its position in the consolidating vitamins market.
The Gunsan-based plant, with a capacity of 3,000 metric tons, will meet growing demand for the water-soluble vitamin, estimated to grow by 4 per cent annually.
The German company produces vitamin B2 via a one-step fermentation from vegetable oil with the help of the fungus Ashbya gossypii and is considered the pioneer of the shift from chemical to biotechnological vitamin B2 production on industrial scale.
The new plant is BASF's first GMP plant in Korea and will benefit from synergies with the firm's key lysine fermentation at the same location. It produces approximately 100,000 metric tons of the amino acid annually.
The Roche vitamins business, recently bought by Dutch firm DSM, remains the world leader in this sector, but BASF has been boosting production of other vitamins too. Work at its Ludwigshafen, Germany site, is expected to raise capacity for vitamin E production to 20,000 metric tons annually from mid-2004.
BASF has also been handing over manufacture of premixes to its US partner Fortitech as it focuses on production of ingredients.