Pulmuone to double pasta production in China by expanding plant

South Korea's food giant Pulmuone on Monday said it will boost production of pasta-based convenience food in China by expanding its first plant in Pinggu District of Beijing.

At the plant site covering 3,847 square meters, the company is building a cutting-edge automated pasta production line to more than double annual output from 45 million units to 100 million with an investment of 31.6 billion won ($23.8 million).

The facility uses dried noodles directly imported from Italy's top pasta brand Barilla, boils and processes the noodles with Pulmuone know-how, and packs them with sauce.

Through this facility expansion, Pulmuone is targeting the Chinese market for home meal replacement (HMR) such as pasta, which accounted for the bulk of sales of the company's Chinese subsidiary Pumeiduo Foods last year with 43%.

Pumeiduo Foods CEO Doo Jin-woo said, "As demand keeps rising mainly among youth, pasta is expected to continue its high growth on the Chinese market of 1.4 billion people."

In 2010, Pulmuone set up incorporated affiliates in Beijing and Shanghai and after 10 years through 2020, the company posted a surplus there. In April this year, Pulmuone completed a second factory in Beijing to produce packaged tofu.

Write to Kyeong-Je Han at hankyung@hankyung.com