The market for vitamins and minerals in China is growing at 20% per year
Tel Aviv, Israel, January 31, 2005 – Makhteshim Agan (TASE – MAIN), the world's leading generic agrochemical company and ranked 7th in the global agrochemicals market, announced today that its subsidiary, LycoRed Natural Products Ltd., is erecting a plant in China. LycoRed will manufacture mixes of vitamins, for sale in China and other south-east Asian countries.
Morris Zelkha, CEO of Lycored: 'The 20% growth rate of the Chinese vitamin market makes it very attractive for us, especially as it is also addressing the developing baby food market. In addition, many of China's flour, rice, milk and milk powder products are enriched with vitamins and minerals. We intend to be players in those markets, and believe our products have great potential there.'
Shlomo Yanai, CEO of the Makhteshim Agan Group, said that the plant in China is another step in realizing the Group's strategy of expanding its operations in health foods and dietary supplements, and an important contribution to its activities in the Chinese market.
LycoRed manufactures lycopene products from lycopene-rich tomatoes in a unique and patent-protected process. The products add color to a variety of food products, such as soft drinks, ice-cream, dairy products (fruit yoghurts, yoghurt drinks, etc.), baked goods and more. Beyond the coloring properties, clinical studies show lycopene to be beneficial to health, providing natural protection for the skin against the exposure to the sun, helping prevent prostate cancer, and effective in the treatment of hypertension.
Most of the sales of lycopene, which is sold under the brand Lyc-O-Mato®, are in the dietary supplement markets in America and Western Europe and in the health food market in Japan, where it is used as food coloring, LycoRed recently received FDA approval to use lycopene for coloring in health foods. Food enrichment is another fast-growing market, with food companies which routinely added vitamins and minerals to their products to enhance their nutritional value, now adding biologically-active substances such as lycopene to basic foods, to enhance their health-giving properties.
About LycoRed:
LycoRed is headquartered in Be'er Sheva and manufactures lycopene products for the health food industry from lycopene-rich tomatoes developed specially for the company by the Volcani Institute and Hazera Genetics. The product is internationally recognized, and the company is justly proud of its 'all-Israeli' achievement. The product is sold under the brand name Lyc-O-Mato®, and has been tested in numerous clinical studies.
The company, on a steady growth curve and continuing the research and development around its principal product, is branching out into other areas of dietary supplement products.
About Makhteshim-Agan:
Makhteshim-Agan is the world's leading generic manufacturer in the agrochemical market, with 2005 nine month sales of $1,335.6 Million and Net profit of $158.4 million. The company is characterized by its high level of technological-chemical competencies, its adherence to the strictest environmental standards, and its global reach for the registration, marketing, and distribution of many products. With about 80 active ingredients in the portfolio, Makhteshim Agan has an emphasis on growth in preferred markets such as North America and Western Europe.