Ajinomoto to increase frozen-food output from U.S.

Ajinomoto will increase production of frozen rice in North America by 50%, keeping pace with an expanding market for frozen Japanese food.

A production line for rice products will be built at U.S. frozen-food subsidiary Ajinomoto Windsor's plant in Oakland, Mississippi, at a cost of 2.4 billion yen. The new line will starting in September 2016 and raise to an annual 22,000 tons the combined frozen-rice output capacity at the Mississippi plant and a factory in Portland, Oregon. It will be 1.5 times more annual production compare to the current one.

Frozen products including fried rice are main products, alongside noodles and dumplings. Sales of the goods doubled between fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2014, pushing production at the Portland factory to its limit and necessitating the additional line. The new construction will make for a more flexible supply system by letting Ajinomoto Windsor ship rice products from two points in the U.S.

Ajinomoto Windsor was formed after Ajinomoto bought Windsor Quality Holdings, a leading frozen food producer in North America in 2014 for 84 billion yen. This acquisition surely boosted Ajinomoto's share of the North American market for frozen Japanese and other Asian foods to nearly 40%.

With the improvement of the quality of frozen food and the good thing about frozen food which is very easy to prepare to make the demands of the frozen food rising. That market is growing around 5% a year, even as the 5 trillion yen frozen-food market there stagnates.  Frozen food can be transported and can be kept for a longer period of time and it is easier for companies like Ajinomoto to manage the product compare to raw food and fresh vegetables or meats.

The company now sells rice products through retailers such as Costco Wholesale. Ajinomoto also seeks to get the products into restaurant and retail chains already tapped by Windsor, including Walmart.

News Source: Nikkei Shimbun