SEOUL, KOREA - CJ CheilJedang said on October 21 that "L-methionine" that it has developed two years ago through a new innovative and highly competitive industrial bio-fermentation process from plant-based raw materials has been proven superior to the existing DL-methionine.

 

L-methionine is an essential amino acid used to produce animal feed for pigs and chickens. In contrast to petroleum-based DL-methionine, L-methionine is considered better in that it relies on a biological process.

 

According to experiments conducted by a biotech research team at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, North Carolina State University, the weight growth rate for animals fed by feedstuff containing L-methionine was 138 percent higher than that for animals eating existing DL-methionine-based feed. The research results were revealed in the World Conference on Animal Production held in Beijing for six days between October 15 and 20.

 

The company expects that new feed containing L-methionine will change the market landscape currently dominated by DL-methionine. Of the US$5-billion global methionine market, as much as 95 percent is accounted for by top DL-methionine producers including Evonik Industries (Germany), Bluestar Adisseo Nutrition Group (China), Novus International (U.S.), and Sumitomo Chemical (Japan).

 

Once its Malaysian plant is completed in April next year, CJ CheilJedang will step up its production of L-methionine in earnest. The first-year target sales revenue for the company will be 100 billion won, with a 2-percent global market share.