Rongcheng Hexi Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

Rongcheng Hexi Biotechnology extracts colour from vegetables and grain. Purple sweet potato is its focus, sold both as an anthocyanin colour and as concentrated juice and juice powder, and the range extends to beetroot red with matching red beet concentrate, sorghum red, red rice red and monascus red. Food and drink, cosmetics and supplement makers buy these as colours and as ingredients in their own right. The company also blends finished solid drinks.

Hexi was founded in 2017 at Rongcheng in Weihai, on the eastern tip of the Shandong peninsula, and its plant covers more than 9,000 square metres with stainless steel equipment throughout. Weihai's sandy soil makes it one of China's main purple sweet potato districts, which puts the raw material next to the extraction line. The company runs joint research with National Taiwan University and Minghsin University of Science and Technology.