25 Mar 2010 --- Cargill's flavor footprint now extends worldwide with the opening of a dedicated manufacturing plant in Pinghu, China. Complementing the flavor application laboratory established in Shanghai in 2007, the new facility will enable Cargill to serve customers with comprehensive solutions ranging from flavor creation for beverage, dairy, confectionery and bakery applications, to manufacturing and supply.

Together with its production facility in Bangalore (India), plus application centers in Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Bangalore, the Chinese site forms the base from which Cargill will serve the growing Asian market.

"This latest venture demonstrates our commitment to being a worldwide partner for our flavors customers as we now have one or more manufacturing sites in each regional market," said Peter Michielsen, head of Cargill Flavor Systems. "Crucially, the plant will enable us to react even faster to the needs of our customers, whether local Chinese manufacturers, or global customers with sites in China. It also strengthens our worldwide flavor network where local knowledge becomes global knowledge, especially in terms of sharing expertise or spotting the rise and fall of consumer trends. At Pinghu, in particular, we will apply our knowledge in connecting base raw materials with speciality ingredients such as flavors."

"Our flavor business has a strong competitive advantage. It can and does draw upon the extensive knowledge we have built up across our food ingredients portfolio that also includes juices, starches and sweeteners, edible oils, texturizers, malt, cocoa and chocolate. This will enable us to provide original and often unique taste solutions to our customers."

The new plant has been built on the same site as Cargill's existing starches and sweeteners plant, enabling customers to benefit from synergies in development and production and to make maximum use of Cargill's wide-ranging expertise.

In the intensely competitive world of food and beverage, this new plant will greatly improve the efficiency of the supply chain making Cargill very attractive to manufacturers in China and beyond who appreciate Cargill's focus on high quality and safety. With over 1,000 facilities around the world, the company has extensive experience in systematic and harmonized food safety management.

"Cargill is committed to applying our global expertise and standards to our flavor business in China to offer safe and quality-assured products to our customers," said Simon George, general manager of Cargill Flavor Systems in Asia.