24 October 2007 - In 2006, global demand for monosodium glutamate (MSG) amounted to approximately 1.95 million tons, according to recent data obtained by FLEXNEWS.
China accounted for 45.6% of the global demand for the flavour enhancer with 890,000 tons per annum.
Over the past three years, the market has grown at an average annual rate of approximately 3-4% pa. It is expected to continue expanding at the same rate in the coming years.
Ajinomoto maintains the leading share of the worldwide MSG market with about 30%.
The Japanese firm faces competition from Vedan, Cheil Jedang (CJ) Corporation, Daesang Group, as well as other Chinese manufacturers.
For the fiscal year ended 31 March 2007, Ajinomoto saw its Overseas Food Products business’ (including MSG) sales grow by 28% year-on-year to 127.7 billion yen (USD 1.120 billion), whereas competitor company Cheil Jedang recently said that for Q3 2007 gross profit for its bio business (including MSG) declined by 13.7% on the year – a 4.4 billion won (USD 4.8 million) loss.
CJ also announced that the international MSG price decline has prompted the firm to decrease its own MSG output. Hence, the company said in September of this year that it would halt production of the flavour enhancer at its Gayang-Dong plant near Seoul.