Vland to Develop a Project for Annually Producing 1,000-ton Functional Edible Probiotics

On February 11, 2020, Vland (603739.sh) issued an announcement that its wholly-owned subsidiary Shandong Vland Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Shandong Vland”) intended to invest in a  updating program of technology for annually producing 1,000 tons of functional edible probiotics. The total investment will reach 203 million yuan, including 187 million yuan in construction and 15.06 million yuan as working capital. All the funds needed for project will be raised by Shandong Vland itself. The project has been recorded in Huimin County Bureau of Industry and Information Technology.

In accordance with the announcement, the project will achieve an annual production capacity of 1,000 tons of functional edible probiotic products after completion. It will cover a total area of 19,980 square meters and a construction area of 17,320 square meters, mainly including R&D center, fermentation workshop, post-processing workshop, intelligent packaging workshop and warehouse.

In recent years, probiotics have become increasingly popular and the functions have gradually become well known. As consumption upgrades, the probiotics industry has ushered in a golden period of rapid development, and it has also played an important role in the industrial transformation and upgrading of China's food industry. The sales and growth of probiotic products worldwide have maintained a good momentum. The downstream application chain of the probiotics industry is very wide, spanning multiple industries such as functional foods, health products, daily chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The current industrial scale and expansion in China are far from meeting the growing market demand.

Vland has accumulated many years ofpractical experience in the R&D and production of probiotics for animals and plants. In 2018, the company introduced high-end talents at home and abroad (those who had done R&D on strains in DuPont-Danisco and Chr. Hansen basedin Denmark). With the talents, it made a heavy investment to establish a nutrition and health technology center specializing in the R&D of food probiotics. At present, Vland has mastered certain key advanced technologies in the R&D of probiotics used by human, and has got several functional strains with independent intellectual property rights. More new strains are also under development, laying a solid foundation for future production.

After the project is completed, Shandong Vland will mainly produce highly concentrated active probiotic powder by applying hi-tech such as high-density fermentation and freeze-drying protection.The powder can be further processed into probiotic food, solid beverages,medicines, cosmetics, etc. to meet customer’s needs. Functional strains with fermented flavor can also be used to produce probiotic fermentation broth and fermented foods (such as yogurt, functional fermented milk). In addition, as the annual production capacity of 1,000 tons of functional edible probiotics takes the lead in the domestic companies of the same kind, Shandong Vland can not only use its own strains to produce products, but also have strong OEM production capabilities. The implementation of the project will further enrichthe company's product structure and promote its sustainable development, whichconform to the its development strategy.