February 12, 2004

Establishment of Functional Oils Plant in Nissui Tsukuba Plant

Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (Naoya Kakizoe, President & CEO) has established the Functional Oils Plant in Tsukuba Plant (Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture), with an investment of approximately 1.5 billion yen.

Nissui has been producing eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and other functional oils at Tsukuba Plant and the plant of its affiliate Kyowa Tecnos Co., Ltd. (Shibayama-cho, Sanbu-gun, Chiba Prefecture) at a rate of approximately 600 tons per year, and has been selling them in industries specializing in dietary supplements, nutritional supplements, milk formula for babies and food additives both in Japan and overseas. The new factory is the third functional lipids production plant in Nissui Group, and has a total production capacity of more than 1,000 tons.

Nissui has enhanced R&D and sales functions as a producer, in accordance with its management policy to create new value acknowledged by customers through its wealth of knowledge and technology based on marine resources, as it is programmed as a company, including the creation of EPA pharmaceutical products(*1) in the field of fine chemicals. Nissui will continue to make unique efforts, not only in the refinement and further concentration of functional lipids but also in the expansion of structured lipids(*2) by combining the research functions of the Central Research Laboratory (Hachioji City, Tokyo) and the development functions of Tsukuba Plant. The new Functional Oils Factory will serve as the flagship factory for future efforts, and will satisfy various quality control requirements for expanding into overseas markets (such as HACCP requirements for exports to USA).

*1: Nissui launched a joint EPA research project with Chiba University's School of Medicine in 1979, and a joint EPA development project aimed at EPA commercialization with Mochida Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in 1981. In 1990, the production of pharmaceutical ingredient "EPA-E Nissui" was approved, resulting in the birth of Epadel, an EPA preparation sold by Mochida Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

*2: Fat whose fatty acid structure varies depending on nutrients and physical functions. Examples include fats for nutritional supplements with improved absorbability and fats for chocolate with smooth melting properties.