THE KOREA ECONOMIC DAILY, GLOBAL EDITION

Samyang Corp., a 100-year-old chemical and food ingredient-manufacturing company in South Korea, is poised to cement its leadership in the Korean allulose market after opening the country’s biggest alternative sweetener production factory.

The company on Wednesday celebrated the completion of the construction of its specialty ingredient production complex, which cost the company about 140 billion won ($104.3 million).

Located in Ulsan, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, the new complex is composed of an allulose factory and a prebiotics factory sitting on a 22,000-square-meter land. The factories churn out 25,000 tons of specialty ingredients in total a year.

Especially, the new allulose factory can produce 13,000 tons of the sugar alternative a year, four times bigger than Samyang’s old allulose factory’s capacity.

With Korea’s largest allulose production capacity, the new factory is expected to enable Samyang to solidify its No. 1 position in the country’s allulose market by sales, widening the gap with its crosstown rival Daesang Corp.

Allulose is a rare sugar naturally found in fruits like figs and raisins. It is less sweet than real sugar and virtually calorie-free. Its demand has been on a rise in recent years as more people look for healthy substitutes for sugar for healthy eating.

EYEING ON BIGGER GLOBAL MARKET

Samyang developed allulose syrup in 2016 and started its mass production in 2020. THe ingredient's brand name is Nexweet.

The new allulose factory has facilities fit to produce not only allulose syrup but also granulated allulose, or crystalline allulose, suitable for export.

Following the opening of the new production complex, the Korean food ingredient company aims to double specialty ingredient sales’ share in its overall sales and overseas sales by 2030.

As part of its efforts to meet the goal, it will advance into North America, Japan and Southeast Asia to expand overseas sales of its specialty ingredients. It has made forays into Australia and New Zealand.

The company will produce nondigestible maltodextrin and fructooligosaccharide power, a raw ingredient for functional foods, from the new prebiotics factory.

The sugar refiner also produces general food ingredients such as sugar, starch sugar, flour and oil/fat.

Its other mainstay business is a chemical business that produces engineering plastic, ion exchange resin and electronic materials.  

Write to Hun-Hyoung Ha at hhh@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.