Competition record
Ajinomoto
Deep profile · 1 linked library matter
Ajinomoto is a Japanese fermentation company known for seasonings and amino acids. It pleaded guilty with ADM to fixing lysine prices and sales volumes in the mid-1990s.
Overview
Ajinomoto built its business on fermentation, the same microbial process behind monosodium glutamate and a range of amino acids sold to food companies and feed mills. Lysine for animal feed was one of those fermented products.
US prosecutors charged the lysine producers with agreeing prices and volumes rather than competing for feed customers. Ajinomoto was one of the Asian producers that pleaded guilty alongside Archer Daniels Midland and Kyowa Hakko.
The corporations paid fines of more than $100 million in total, and executives were imprisoned. The library status for this matter is fined. This profile does not assign Ajinomoto its own dollar share of that total.
Competition footprint
Ajinomoto sells ingredients to food makers and feed mills, so a cartel on one amino acid is a cost in the customer's formula.
A volume deal tells each fermentation plant how much lysine it may ship.
The guilty pleas are the recorded outcome, not an ongoing investigation.
Consumer & business angle
Feed buyers and, further down, meat producers absorbed the lysine overcharge.
ADM was the American rival in the same volume-and-price agreement.
What to watch
- How amino-acid markets are cited when enforcers look at concentrated fermentation inputs.
- Any damages claim that still treats Ajinomoto as a lysine seller from that period.
Markets
amino acids · fermentation ingredients · lysine · lysine feed additives · animal nutrition
Also known as: ajinomoto