Sunwin Stevia International has announced that its facilities are now capable of producing A3-99 stevia products. The addition of A3-99 to its commercial production capabilities is part of its previously announced stevioside expansion project.
According to the company, A3-99 extracts are among the highest quality stevioside extracts produced in the world. Sunwin Stevia has completed testing for this production process, making it one of only a few producers of A3-99 in China. Management expects to begin delivering shipments of the A3-99 to Zhejiang Huisong Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical customer in China, in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 which begins in February 2013. Sunwin also intends to seek patents in China for its A3-99 production methodology.
"We are excited to add A3-99 to our commercial product offerings making Sunwin Stevia one of a select few suppliers capable of producing this extract on a large scale,” said Dongdong Lin, CEO of Sunwin Stevia. “Our recent facility upgrade has substantially increased our overall capabilities and we anticipate further additions to our production capabilities as we continue testing and trial production runs. We believe our technology is state of the art and we intend to seek a patent for our methodologies. We look forward to actively marketing our A3-99 stevia in China and eventually in the international markets in the coming quarters."
In December 2012, Sunwin announced the completion of its previously announced stevioside expansion project. The completion of this high tech expansion of its production facilities brings Sunwin's total bulk stevia production capacity to 1,300 metric tons, including 500 metric tons of high grade stevioside products (Rabaudioside 60, 80, 95, 98, and 99) and 500 metric tons of steviosin which is a stevioside extract used in the pharmaceutical industry.
Sunwin's new stevioside extraction line uses a crystallisation process that is said to substantially reduce production time while increasing product yield. Sunwin believes this process will lead to a substantial reduction in overall processing costs as utilisation rates increase. In addition, Sunwin's facilities are capable of producing 500 metric tons of stevioside in granular and tablet forms on an annual basis. Demand for stevia in these forms has been increasing and management believes Sunwin is now poised to capitalise on this industry trend.
Sunwin began its expansion project in April 2012 in anticipation of an improvement in demand in the coming years as the use of stevia as a healthy low calorie sweetener continues to increase across the globe.
