Barentz International has bolstered its operations within the food ingredients segment in southeast Asia by entering into a joint venture with Vita Co., Ltd in Thailand.

Vita Co is a well-established ingredients distributor in Thailand with a “profound knowledge” of the Thai market, according to Barentz, the leading provider of ingredients for the food and nutrition segment, and its product portfolio will expand Barentz’ own product range and production facilities in the region.

While Vita is part of the VIV Group, a distributor of a wide range of ingredients, the joint venture, Vita Barentz Co. Ltd., will mainly be active within Thailand’s fast-growing food sector, with a particular focus on health & nutrition Ingredients.

“I am very pleased to see Barentz join forces with Vita,” said Hidde van der Wal, CEO of Barentz International. “Vita’s focus on Health & Nutrition is especially interesting. Health products are growing immensely in popularity and the joint venture can offer the industry an almost complete range of ingredients in this key segment.”

“Furthermore, through our own state-of-the-art production facilities Vitablend in Singapore, we will be able to offer the region health & nutritional premixes and functional blends that meet the high-quality demands in this sensitive product segment.”

The VIV Group, with more than 50 years in the business, is a well-established and respected ingredients player, that is behind the success of many manufacturers of renowned end products in Asia.

Within Vita the focus is now on expanding within the food segment.

"Thailand's food segment has immense growth opportunities and we want to be part of this growth”, says Suchart Chivapornthip, chairman of VIV Group. “I have high hopes for the new joint venture with Barentz which will accelerate our growth. Together we can serve the industry with a more complete portfolio.

“With the technology and know-how of Barentz's combined with Vita's experience and customer relationship in the market, we will become a significant provider for food ingredients and food solutions."