South Korea’s mid-sized food making conglomerate Daesang Corp. is prepping to produce tryptophan, synthetic amino acid instrument to accelerate livestock’s growth to expand its share in the fast-growing feedstuff market.

Daesang said Sunday that it will add tryptophan production lines at its lysine factory in Gusan, North Jeolla Province, Korea in the second half this year. It is reported to readying order for equipments.

Both tryptophan and lysine are synthetic amino acids used as feedstuff supplements for livestock such as pigs and produced through a fermentation process using microorganism. Global tryptophan market is valued at 400 billion ($374 million) and the commodity value has been appreciating due to a supply shortage.

In 2015, Daesang re-entered the feedstuff synthetic amino acids market it abandoned 17 years ago. It sold off its lysine business, which then made up nearly 20 percent of its entire revenue of 1 trillion won, to German chemical firm BASF SE for $600 million to secure cash following the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

BASF in 2007 sold the lysine business to another Korean chemical producer Paik Wang Industrial Co., and Daesang bought back the unit at 120.7 billion won in 2015.

Luck was on its side as global market condition improved following the acquisition. Revenue from the lysine business reached 300 billion won last year and lysine export grew by more than 20 percent during the first three months this year compared to a year earlier.

Daesang plans to nurture its biochemical business, which includes lysine and tryptophan as its future growth engine. In December, it succeeded to develop the high value-added synthetic amino acid product ‘L-Histidine’ for the first time in Korea, according to the company.

Currently, global tryptophan market is led by CJ Cheiljedang, Korea’s leading food and chemicals maker, with 40.7 percent share followed by Japan’s Ajinomoto with 18.9 percent.

By Lee Duk-joo and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]