Fuji Oil Holdings Inc.

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• Did you know2024

  Fuji Oil is simultaneously a major supplier to two polar-opposite food industry segments: (1) ultra-processed confectionery (compound chocolate coatings on ice cream bars, chocolate-flavored candy coatings, cookie filling fats — using CBS and CBR products) and (2) plant-based healthy foods (soy protein isolate for Beyond Meat-type burgers, plant-based dairy proteins, vegan cheese ingredients). The soy protein isolate that Fuji Oil manufactures for plant-based meat companies positions them in the "health and sustainability" supply chain; the CBS compound fat they make for ice cream coating positions them in the "indulgence and cost reduction" confectionery supply chain. A consumer who buys a $9 vegan Beyond Burger patty containing Fuji Oil soy protein for health and environmental reasons, and a consumer who buys a $1.50 Magnum ice cream bar with a CBS compound coating for indulgence, are both unknowingly Fuji Oil end customers. The company provides the protein for healthy eating and the fat for guilty pleasure simultaneously from the same Osaka corporation.

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• Concentration2024

  Most of the world's "chocolate" confectionery does not contain real chocolate (cocoa butter) — it contains compound chocolate or compound coatings made from CBS (Cocoa Butter Substitutes) or CBR (Cocoa Butter Replacers). Products labeled "chocolate-flavored," "chocolatey," "compound-coated," or "contains no cocoa butter" — which includes the majority of cheap candy bars, biscuit coatings, ice cream novelty coatings, and confectionery in developing markets — are made with Fuji Oil, AAK, or IOI Loders Croklaan CBS/CBR fats. These three companies (Fuji Oil, AAK/Aarhus Karlshamn, and IOI Loders Croklaan) supply the compound fat that enables the mass-market confectionery industry to sell chocolate-flavored products at price points that would be impossible with real cocoa butter. The entire "affordable chocolate" segment of the global confectionery market — hundreds of billions of pieces of candy, cookies, and ice cream bars consumed annually — depends on the specialty fats oligopoly. When the price of cocoa beans spiked 100%+ in 2023-2024 due to West African supply disruption, CBS and CBR fats gained market share as confectionery manufacturers substituted compound for real chocolate — and Fuji Oil benefited commercially from the cocoa supply crisis.

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• Origin2024

  Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. was founded in 1950 in Izumisano, Osaka as a soybean oil refiner, capitalizing on post-WWII Japan's need for domestic edible fats to replace the animal fats (lard, butter) that wartime rationing had made scarce. The company's expansion into specialty fats was driven by the specific requirement of the Japanese confectionery industry: Japan's chocolate and confectionery market grew explosively in the 1960s-1970s (Meiji, Glico, Morinaga), but real cocoa butter was expensive and imported; Japanese confectionery makers needed domestic alternatives. Fuji Oil developed CBS (Cocoa Butter Substitutes) from locally-processed palm kernel oil — a fat with similar lauric acid profile that could replace cocoa butter in Japanese confectionery without requiring cocoa butter imports. The CBS technology developed for Japan's post-war confectionery boom became a global product: Fuji Oil's CBS is now used in cheap chocolate-flavored coatings worldwide, enabling "chocolate" products in markets where real cocoa butter would make the product unaffordable.

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