Riken Vitamin to build new plant on former 'Solar Ark' site in Gifu

Riken Vitamin acquired a factory site in Anpachi, Gifu Prefecture, the former location of Sanyo Electric's 'Solar Ark' solar power facility, for about JPY 3.6 billion. The new plant, set to begin operations in FY2030, will produce functional food ingredients and food colorants, including crocetin extracted from gardenia fruit, relocating production from the space-constrained Kyoto plant to meet growing demand including planned US exports of gardenia blue colorant.