SHANDGHAI, CHINA and HOLZMINDEN, GERMANY — Symrise Pet Food recently entered a joint venture with Fujian Sunner Development Co., Ltd. (Sunner), a Chinese poultry processor, to supply the Chinese pet food market with sustainable, egg-based ingredients.

Founded in 1983, family-owned Sunner owns about 350 chicken farms throughout China, producing nearly 600 million chicken broilers annually. The company serves the fast food, food manufacturing and meat wholesale markets, offering fresh and divided frozen chicken.

According to Symrise, the partnership reinforces its position as a leader in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) pet food segment. The joint venture also builds upon the company’s increased presence in the egg protein and ingredients market, which the company furthered after its acquisitions of US-based IsoNova in 2019 and Netherlands-based Schaffelaarbos in 2022.

The joint venture follows Symrise’s move to expand in the pet food market, for which the company built a new pet food facility in China in 2021 and acquired Wing Biotech in 2022.

“With this new step, Symrise accelerates its pet food growth strategy in China,” said Jean-Yves Parisot, Ph.D., president of Taste, Nutrition & Health at Symrise. “This move fully meets our values and our sustainable positioning in egg upcycling. Experts consider APAC the fastest growing region for pet food applications globally. I am certain that this long-term partnership will enable us to combine our expertise and jointly meet the expectations and demands of consumers. It paves the way for many future opportunities.”

Symrise will hold the majority and operational management of the joint venture. The company will collaborate with Sunner in the manufacturing and marketing of high-quality, sustainable egg-based proteins. Symrise will contribute its expertise and Sunner will contribute egg sources. The venture will include a new facility in China, with products sold under Symrise Pet Food’s brand Nutrios.

“Symrise is a highly professional group, showing excellent results and with an international footprint with whom we are excited to engage in a joint adventure,” said Fenfang FU, chief executive officer of Sunner. “We are confident about the benefits for our two entities, and also for our customers to whom we will deliver added value solutions with nutritional and healthy benefits.”

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