Ningxia Eppen Biotech Co., Ltd.

Ningxia Eppen Biotech ferments corn into amino acids and savoury ingredients. For food makers it produces monosodium glutamate, yeast extract and corn fermented sauce, a fermentation co-product sold as a savoury base, along with blended seasonings and sweeteners. The same fermentation platform feeds a larger animal nutrition business in amino acids, yeast culture and corn by-product residue.

The company started in 1999 at Yinchuan, Ningxia, and added fermentation bases in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang, with offices in Beijing and Singapore. It exports to more than 50 countries. In 2022 Eppen reorganised with Star Lake Bioscience, the Shanghai-listed biotechnology arm of the Guangdong state group Guangxin Holdings, and now sits inside that company, whose plants run at Yinchuan, Chifeng, Daqing, Kokdala, Zhaoqing and Zhaodong.