Major Japanese flour maker Nisshin Seifun Group Inc. has launched its first premix factory in Vietnam to better serve local customers and capitalize on the Southeast Asian country's rich human resources.

Nisshin Seifun's food manufacturing arm, Nisshin Foods Inc., took part in the opening ceremony on Tuesday for the 10,000 square-meter plant with about 100 workers in the Amata City Industrial Park in Bien Hoa, Dong Nai Province near Ho Chi Minh City.

The factory will cater to local premix demands, which previously relied on imports from Nisshin Seifun's Thai arm, by developing new products utilizing its research and development facility.

The two Japanese firms jointly invested some 342 billion dong ($14.8 million) and established its local arm, Vietnam Nisshin Technomic Co., owned 75 percent by Nisshin Foods and 25 percent by Nisshin Seifun, to produce premixes for deep-fried foods, bakeries and confectionaries with an annual output capacity of 9,000 tons.

They have secured extra adjacent land to enable future expansion in the future, Yuji Koike, president of Nisshin Foods, told NNA at the ceremony. (NNA/Kyodo)

==Kyodo

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