Japan's Yakult to build new beverage factory in China

Japanese probiotic beverage firm Yakult Honsha will invest about 300 million U.S. dollars in building its second factory in the city of Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province, local government has said.

With a total of 12 production lines, the new plant in Wuxi's hi-tech zone will cover an area of around 6.67 hectares. Construction work will start in August this year, and the factory will be operational in 2022 with daily production capacity up to 5.4 million bottles, according to the municipal government on Friday.

The signing ceremony was held on Thursday.

Upon completion, Wuxi will become the largest fermented milk production base of Yakult in the world, according to the company.

"We believe we have made a wise choice," said Susumu Hirano, representative director of Yakult (China) Corporation, citing the performance of Yakult Wuxi over the years as well as what China has done to contain the COVID-19 epidemic.

The Wuxi plant since 2015 is Yakult's largest plant in China, producing up to 4.05 million bottles per day.

One of the world's leading probiotic beverages created in Japan in 1935, Yakult is sold in 40 countries and regions around the world.