Producer
CJ BIO (CJ CheilJedang)
CJ BIO, the bioscience division of CJ CheilJedang (Korea); world's largest single L-lysine producer by company; ~15-20% global lysine market share; operates the world's most efficient large-scale fermentation platform; produces from corn-based feedstock in Korea (HQ), Iowa USA, Shenyang China, Liaocheng China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brazil; invented high-yield lysine fermentation strains; also the global #1 in tryptophan and a top-5 threonine producer
4
Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
2
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
4 inputs CJ BIO (CJ CheilJedang) supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
chemical
L-Lysine (Essential Amino Acid Supplement) →
chemical
L-Lysine HCl (Essential Amino Acid Supplement) →
pharmaceutical
IV Parenteral Nutrition Solutions (TPN Bags) →
chemical
L-Lysine HCl (Essential Amino Acid Supplement) →
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something CJ BIO (CJ CheilJedang) makes, pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
2 facilities
CJ BIO Brazil Amino Acid Facility →
BRJaboatão dos Guararapes, Pernambuco, Brazil · amino acid fermentation
USD 220.26M expansion completed May 2024; produces lysine, threonine, and other feed amino acids via microbial fermentation for South American feed market. Strategic positioning to serve Brazil's massive poultry and swine industries with locally produced amino acids.
CJ Bio Fort Dodge Iowa Fermentation Plant →
USIowa · processing
CJ Bio's US lysine and amino acid fermentation plant; Iowa location leverages proximity to US corn belt; key US domestic source of feed-grade lysine; serves North American poultry and swine feed markets
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map, where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Feed-Grade Amino Acids (Lysine, Threonine, Tryptophan)
55%Food-Grade Amino Acids & Flavor Nucleotides
20%Pharmaceutical & Clinical Amino Acids
12%CJ CheilJedang Parent (Food + K-Culture)
13%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2023
CJ BIO produces the world's #1 tryptophan supply for swine and poultry feed — the same essential amino acid that is also the biochemical precursor to serotonin, melatonin, and niacin in human physiology. The same fermentation tanks that produce CJ BIO's feed-grade tryptophan (for piglet starter diets) also supply pharmaceutical-grade tryptophan used in clinical nutrition (TPN bags for hospital patients) and over-the-counter sleep/mood supplements (5-HTP, L-tryptophan). In 1989, contaminated tryptophan from Japanese producer Showa Denko caused 37 deaths and 1,500 permanent disabilities from eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome — one of the worst pharmaceutical/supplement disasters in US history. The Showa Denko incident was caused by impurities in fermentation-produced tryptophan and triggered immediate FDA bans on tryptophan supplements. CJ BIO is now the dominant global tryptophan producer across all three markets — animal feed, dietary supplements, and clinical nutrition — from a single fermentation platform.
CJ CheilJedang BIO ↗Origin2023
CJ BIO is the biotechnology division of CJ CheilJedang, which itself descends from Samsung's food and chemical businesses. CJ Group was formed in 1953 when Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul established Cheil Industries (CheilJedang means 'First Sugar') to produce sugar and flour — staple food processing. CJ CheilJedang developed amino acid fermentation in the 1980s-1990s, following the Ajinomoto/Kyowa Hakko model, developing proprietary Corynebacterium glutamicum strains for high-yield lysine fermentation. CJ BIO is now the world's largest single lysine producer and #1 tryptophan producer globally — products with no overlap in the Korean chaebols' traditional industries (sugar, food) but built on the same fermentation microbiology platform. The expansion from sugar fermentation to amino acid biotech represents a 70-year industrial evolution of the same Korean company.
CJ CheilJedang Corporation ↗Capacity2023
CJ BIO operates one of the world's most geographically diversified amino acid fermentation networks: 7+ plants across South Korea, China (2 plants), USA (Iowa), Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. This geographic spread was strategically built to supply major poultry/swine production regions locally: the Iowa plant serves US Corn Belt integrators; the Chinese plants serve Chinese pork production; Southeast Asian plants serve rapidly growing shrimp and aquaculture sectors. CJ BIO's global fermentation network is sized at roughly 500,000-700,000 MT/year lysine equivalent. The geographic diversification also provides resilience: unlike Evonik's methionine concentration in Singapore, CJ BIO's distributed model means no single country or region controls CJ lysine supply — though Korea (HQ) and China (large share) together represent significant geopolitical exposure.
CJ CheilJedang BIO ↗