Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for taking precious time out of your busy schedule to attend Ajinomoto's IR Day. We thank you very much indeed. I will be your moderator for today. My name is Iimura from the IR Office. Let me introduce today's speakers. We have Representative Executive Officer and President, Mr. Nakamura, and Executive Officer in charge of Sustainability, Ms. Ono. In addition to the two speakers, we also have participants, including Representative Executive Officer and Executive Vice President, Mr. Shiragami; Executive Officer and Senior Vice President, General Manager of Corporate Division, Mr. Sasaki; Executive Officer and Vice President in charge of Finance and Investor Relations, Mr. Mizutani; and Corporate Fellow and General Manager of IR Office, Mr. Kaji.
Today, we'll begin with the opening remarks from Mr. Nakamura, followed by Ms. Ono's presentation on initiatives to maximize ASV by enhancing sustainability, followed by a Q&A session, before we close. Materials to be used for today's session is already posted on Ajinomoto's corporate homepage IR information site under the IR Data so please take a look at them as necessary. Please also be advised that today's session will be recorded, including all the way to the Q&A session, and it will be posted on the IR information site of the company later on. Now, without further ado, we would like to begin. Mr. Nakamura, the floor is yours.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us for IR Day today. I am Shigeo Nakamura, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and Chief Executive Officer. I will focus on three main points today. First, the Ajinomoto Group views sustainability initiatives as the core of our ASV initiatives. They work as one with our business strategy to create both social and economic value and accelerate business growth. Second, I will discuss our approach to maximizing ASV. We're advancing initiatives to reduce negative impacts and expand positive impacts, aiming to enhance the resilience of our business foundation and create opportunities for growth. Today, we'd like to explain these initiatives, focusing particularly on the agri-food systems, where we can leverage the strengths of our AminoScience Technology.
Third, we are advancing initiatives in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, including governments, financial institutions, and private companies, to achieve sustainable corporate value enhancement. Last November, I participated in COP 30, held in Belém, Brazil, where I shared our solutions for addressing social challenges with governments and private sector representatives from around the world. I also emphasized the need to expand funding for the agricultural sector to build a sustainable agri-food system as well as the importance of broad partnerships, thereby deepening our dialogue with the international community. Going forward, we will further expand these initiatives and achieve sustainable growth in corporate value while balancing sustainability with business growth.
Our aspiration or purpose is contributing to the well-being of all human beings, our society, and our planet with AminoScience, and we're advancing initiatives aimed at achieving the outcomes of reducing environmental impact by 50% and extending healthy life expectancy for 1 billion people. To realize this purpose, we're promoting initiatives aimed at creating social and economic value under the banner of ASV, Ajinomoto Group Creating Shared Value, positioning sustainability at the core of this ASV management. As a roadmap toward maximizing ASV, we have first identified the six material themes being addressed by the Ajinomoto Group, as shown on the left. Each of these themes, we are implementing initiatives that take into account risks and opportunities to reduce negative impacts and expand positive impacts so as to enhance the resilience of our business foundation and create opportunities for growth, thereby maximizing ASV.
Regarding how we link sustainability to corporate value, we'll strive to enhance corporate value by increasing our cash flow generation capacity, reducing cost of capital, WACC, raising our growth rate, and achieving even more of speeding up and scaling up. Regarding the cash flow, by unifying sustainability with our business strategy through increased sales, reduced raw material and manufacturing costs achieved through stable procurement, and management focused on ROIC, we will enhance resilience while refining both our growth potential and earning capabilities. Regarding the cost of capital, by mitigating risks related to raw materials procurement and human rights compliance, as well as through the utilization of sustainability finance, we'll aim to reduce WACC. In terms of growth rate, we'll accelerate growth in our four key growth rates, evolve our portfolio, and enhance customer loyalty and brand power.
Furthermore, we'll create a virtuous cycle of corporate value enhancement through speed up and scale up, achieved by rolling out our high-speed development system across the entire group and engaging in co-creation with stakeholders. I said we're working to mitigate negative impacts and expand positive impacts, focusing on six material themes based on respective risks and opportunities. In advancing these initiatives, we're leveraging our proprietary AminoScience Technology to develop a diverse range of products, services, and solutions that contribute to solving social issues across a wide range of fields. We're driving these efforts through partnerships that transcend the value chain and co-creation of ecosystem. Today, we'll focus on the agri-food system, an area where we can particularly leverage our strengths and where the impact on solving social issues is significant, and explain our initiatives aimed at maximizing ASV.
For us, with about 70% of our raw material procurement consisting of agricultural livestock and fishery products, building a sustainable agri-food system is one of the most critical themes for maximizing ASV. The agri-food sector accounts for over 20% of global GHG emissions and has a significant impact on climate change, attracting international attention. Furthermore, there are concerns about the impact of climate change on crop yields and stable supply, making the transformation of the agri-food system an urgent social issue. That is why we view this sector as an opportunity for value creation, where we can simultaneously generate significant social impact and economic value through problem-solving. We'll continue to promote initiatives aimed at transforming the agri-food system. Interest in the agri-food system instead is steadily growing within the international community as well.
In the Emirates Declaration adopted at COP 29, the establishment of sustainable agri-food systems was explicitly positioned as a key theme for the first time. At COP 30, held last year in Belém, Brazil, discussions on transforming the agri-food system progressed further. I participated in COP 30 following COP 29, and I was once again reminded that for companies like ours, which conduct business based on AminoScience, the agri-food system is precisely the field where we can demonstrate our strengths. I took the stage at the Japan Pavilion to convey to the international community the need to expand climate finance for the agricultural sector and the importance of co-creation with stakeholders. I also introduced the potential of our solutions and sought to strengthen relationship with our global partners, making the most of this opportunity. Regarding the specific activities at COP 30, Ms.
Ono, our Executive Officer in charge of sustainability, will provide further details later. Together with Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, we led the issuance of joint statement by 32 private companies, signed an MOU with Banco do Brasil to develop a new financial scheme utilizing sustainable finance, and strengthened our relationships with major global meat producers. We believe we have made steady progress and laid the foundation for further initiatives in the future. This concludes my presentation. Next, Ono will explain our initiatives to maximize ASV by enhancing sustainability.
Hello, everyone. My name is Ono. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend our IR Day. There are three key points that I would like to share with you today. First, sustainability is the cornerstone of ASV management. As a company-wide strategy, we will work together with our group companies and business units to accelerate business growth and contribute to the co-creation of social and economic value. Since our founding, the Ajinomoto Group has worked with stakeholders to address various social issues from upstream to downstream in the value chain, thereby improving the resilience of our business foundation. To further maximize ASV, we will promote collaboration with stakeholders across the value chain and develop a framework for financial valuation, aiming to accelerate business growth and expand opportunities.
Today, I will explain our initiatives including a report on our activities at COP 30. As Nakamura mentioned, this is a pathway to maximize ASV. Through our business activities, we aim to reduce negative impacts and expand positive impacts, thereby improving the resilience of our business foundations creating growth opportunities, and ultimately maximizing economic and social value, which will in turn maximize ASV. We believe this is a unique approach that leverages the strength of our company, AminoScience. An overview of the specific initiatives will be explained on the following slide. Based on the expectations of our stakeholders and the value we should provide to society, we have organized the challenges we should address towards 2030 as the six material themes that are linked to our materiality. For these six material themes, we analyze the risks and opportunities.
We are steadily working to reduce the negative impacts arising from our business, such as greenhouse gases and human rights risks, while also striving to create positive impacts on society at large. Today, I will explain the initiatives that are creating a positive impact particularly our initiatives in the agri-food sector. Among our various initiatives for a positive impact, I will first explain Ajinomoto Group's undertakings in the value chain. Here we show the value chain in the agri-food sector. There are social challenges at each stage, from upstream raw materials and procurement to midstream production, sales, and logistics, and finally to the consumers in the downstream. As a leading company in amino acids, we understand that amino acids are essential nutrients for all life, from microorganisms to plants and animals, and provide a variety of functions. Our strengths lie in amino acid production and utilization and our science-based approach.
Ajinomoto AminoScience allows us to offer solutions to a wide range of social challenges across the entire value chain, from the environment to health and nutrition. First, let's take a look at an example at the upstream. Currently around the world, water shortages, extreme temperatures, and soil degradation caused by climate change are affecting crop yields, making stable production and procurement of raw materials a nascent issue. This has resulted in a spread of diseases and lack of cultivation knowledge, which are affecting farmers' income. It is also linked to challenges such as an aging farming population and a shortage of successors. Accordingly, it is necessary to strengthen farmers' management capabilities and to take measures to improve the sustainability of production and procurement. Ajinomoto provides farmers with educational opportunities, biostimulant products to improve crop productivity, and support for agricultural technologies, including disease-resistant varieties.
For example in Thailand, since 2020, we've been running the Thai Farmer Better Life Partner project to support cassava farmers. As the raw material for MSG and amino acids, we use tapioca starch derived from cassava. In fact, we are the number one company in Thailand in terms of tapioca starch consumption. Cassava is extremely important to our company, but it is also the third-largest crop produced in Thailand and is considered an important crop under the national policy of Thailand. However, in Thailand and other parts of the Malay Peninsula, cassava mosaic disease is currently spreading, leading to reduced yields and income instability for the farmers. These are issues that are difficult for farmers to solve on their own. We established a private and public partnership to support farmers.
In Khon Kaen province, where Ajinomoto Thailand has a factory, we are providing education and training programs to more than 8,000 farmers operating over 500 farms. We are also offering soil analysis and fertilizer optimization for more than 8,000 farms. As a result the average productivity of cassava grown by the farmers who participate in the program has increased by more than 30%. This contributes to the development of the Thai regional economy and enhances the resilience of our business foundation, enabling sustainable and stable raw material procurement. We will aim to further expand the number of farmers participating in this program in the future. We have also launched a support program for cassava farmers in Vietnam as well.
By providing farmers with a cassava cultivation package, we address the challenges they face such as unstable yields and income, damage from cassava mosaic disease and pests, and reliance on chemical fertilizers that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Our program includes introducing new varieties resistant to diseases and pests, switching from chemical fertilizers to co-product fertilizers, providing technical guidance on irrigation, and offering a platform for exchanging technical information between farmers and experts using a smartphone application. As a result, the cassava productivity has approximately doubled at farms that have implemented our program. This initiative in Vietnam has also been selected for the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry's Global South Future-Oriented Co-creation Project subsidy. We will continue to expand our efforts with the aim of improving cassava productivity, increasing farmers' income, and reducing GHG emissions. We have made a press release on Friday on this issue.
In Thailand and Vietnam, where these farmer support initiatives are progressing, both the awareness score and favorability rating of Ajinomoto brand have risen to nearly 90%, receiving high ratings that exceed the average of overseas operations. Furthermore, a strong correlation has been observed between the awareness of our initiatives and the favorability ratings, which suggests that our farmer support efforts are contributing to improving our ratings and brand value. Based on these evaluations, we believe that raising awareness of our farmer support initiatives to a wider audience and fostering empathy and support from them will lead to an improvement in our brand value and will have a positive impact on our B2C business.
Upstream initiatives extend beyond Thailand and Vietnam, but leveraging our global network, we are expanding them to countries such as Japan, Indonesia, and Brazil, as well as to other crops. In various regions, the use of biostimulant products and regenerative agriculture is advancing, and the results, such as improved productivity and reduced GHG emissions, are steadily spreading. We also believe that these results will lead to further trust in our global brand in the world. Next, I will discuss our midstream initiatives.
In domestic logistics in Japan, we are advancing the F-LINE project, a joint transport initiative involving six food companies. By implementing joint transport in Hokkaido and Kyushu, as well as joint trunk road transportation in Hokkaido, we are improving vehicle loading efficiency and aiming to reduce the number of delivery vehicles to customers, including those from other companies, to alleviate the burden at the receiving end and to cut GHG emissions. We're also expanding our logistics efficiency initiative overseas. In the Philippines, for example, we are partnering with logistics providers to improve logistics efficiency and reduce costs, while also utilizing electric vehicles to reduce our environmental impact. On this page, I will talk about our initiatives addressing health and nutrition issues for consumers downstream.
In the health and nutrition sector, there are challenges corresponding to each phase, ranging from a healthy state free of disease to pre-disease, disease, treatment, and post-treatment. We offer a wide range of solutions in this area, including foods that support daily meals, supplements that complement dietary nutrition, the AminoIndex, which assesses disease risk based on the balance of amino acid concentrations in the blood, medical foods, amino acids for pharmaceuticals and foods, and CDMO services, actively developing a broad portfolio of products and services and leveraging partnerships. On the other hand, regardless of health status, excessive intake of salt, sugar, and fat is considered a common nutritional challenge for all consumers and a factor that increases the risk of lifestyle-related diseases.
While WHO recommends measures to curb excessive intake, the fact that people often fail to meet recommended intake levels, coupled with the need to reduce healthcare costs, has led to the implementation of measures such as taxation and regulation in various countries, highlighting the growing global importance of this issue. In response to this issue of excessive salt, sugar, and fat intake, we have long pursued initiatives that do not compromise on deliciousness. Specifically, we utilize umami seasonings, offer reduced salt products across nine countries, 25 brands, and 56 products, and offer products that help reduce sugar and fat and regular products with reduced salt content, thereby providing a wide range of products and solutions in both B2B and B2C sectors that leverage our AminoScience Technology.
We offer solutions to enable consumers to reduce salt, sugar, and fat intake while continuing their normal lifestyle, thereby simultaneously solving social issues and achieving business growth. In addition to the salt, sugar, and fat reduction I just mentioned, we aim to achieve a comprehensively nutritionally balanced diet by promoting appropriate intake of protein, vegetables, and fruits under the strategy of Nutrition Without Compromise. No compromise here applies to deliciousness, access to food, the dietary habits of communities and individuals. We believe that what matters most is that consumers can enjoy delicious food sustainably without strain. The outcome mentioned by Nakamura at the beginning, help 1 billion people to extend their healthy life expectancy, is based on this strategy. By fiscal 2024, we had created touchpoints for deliciousness and health with 950 million consumers. Partnerships are also critical for achieving nutritionally balanced meals.
As an example, I would like to introduce free nutritional meal program in Indonesia. In Indonesia, the double burden of nutrition, where child malnutrition and obesity coexist, is becoming increasingly apparent. For example, it is reported that about 40% of young children suffer from anemia. Given this, the Indonesian government launched a free nutritional meal program in 2025, with a budget exceeding JPY 3 trillion, about 10% of the national budget. Leveraging our expertise from school lunch projects implemented in Vietnam, as well as our community-based sales experience in traditional local markets, we provide menu support that balances nutrition and cost using our products and recipes. We also provide nutrition education programs for cooks at school meal centers, students, and their parents. By leveraging our local network, we are working to facilitate understanding of health and nutrition while also enhancing awareness and trust in our products.
These cumulative efforts are also contributing to local business growth. For instance, sales of cooking sauces in fiscal 2025 grew by double digits over the nine months from April to December. As another example of our partnership, I would like to share with you our approach to creating a dietary environment through the integration of medicine and food to support nutrition during and after treatment. While nutritionally balanced meals are crucial both during and after treatment, many patients, due to illness, aging, or the effects of treatments, face issues in eating, such as being unable to eat enough or unable to enjoy meals as they once did. For family members, it can be difficult to determine appropriate meals, and they may experience significant anxiety and burden regarding meal preparation. If this persists, patients may not be able to consume sufficient nutrients, which could affect the .
Continuation of treatment and recovery and lead to a decline in the patient's quality of life. Healthcare professionals such as doctors and registered dieticians provide professional dietary guidance. They face the issue of being unable to provide sufficient explanation tailored to individuals' situations due to limited consultation time, heavy workloads, and staff shortages. We are contributing to the creation of dietary environment that enables healthy eating through DX, leveraging nutritional experiences. Our AI-powered recipe, meal plan search system, Retable, adheres to guidelines from nutritional societies and provides optimal recommendations by taking into account physical conditions, appetite and chewing ability, and dietary history. This then helps issues faced by healthcare professionals providing nutritional guidance and parents while also expanding business opportunities. Now let me move on to introducing Ajinomoto Group's further value creation efforts beyond the value chain.
As Nakamura mentioned earlier, the agrifood system accounts for more than 20% of the global GHG emissions. While it has a significant impact on climate change, it is also a sector that is strongly affected by the climate change. Last year, COP 30, the largest international conference on climate change, was held in Brazil, and the transformation of agrifood system was discussed intensively as a priority issue alongside the energy sector. Improving efficiency of food production even under droughts, high temperature, or other extreme conditions, while simultaneously protecting and regenerating the global environment were agreed as a global agenda. We see this growing momentum as an opportunity to accelerate the demand for decarbonization solutions in the agrifood sector and to promote initiatives utilizing carbon pricing.
We will contribute to emission reductions across our value chain and assist the adaptation to climate change and lead them to business opportunities that will create social value while simultaneously achieving financial returns. I will explain in more detail later, but our company offers innovative solutions such as AjiPro-L and biostimulant products, as shown on the right-hand side here. By integrating the ecosystem into our solutions, we will scale up and speed up implementation and expand opportunities for creating social value and growing our business. Here are two examples of our decarbonization solutions. First, I will explain AjiPro-L and the progress of our efforts in this space. AjiPro-L is an amino acid lysine product for dairy cows that efficiently supplements lysine, an essential amino acid that is often deficient in cattle.
Its strength lies in its ability to improve feed efficiency by balancing amino acids, reducing GHG emissions, and lower production costs. Brazil, where COP 30 was held, is one of the world's leading livestock producing countries. We were officially invited to events hosted by the BNDES and the former Brazilian Minister of Agriculture and actively engaged in discussions. In addition, we have made progress in discussions with a major Brazilian meat producer with whom we had a prior contact, and we are currently in the final negotiations toward concluding a contract with them. By the end of fiscal 2025, AjiPro-L had reached over 100,000 animals. Over the next year, we will further expand our reach and aim to deliver positive impacts by reducing GHG emissions by some 100,000 tons through this initiative.
Next, I will explain the progress of our efforts in biostimulants. Biostimulants are something like supplements for our plants, but our products utilizes AminoScience and were confirmed to promote the physiological functions and the growth of plants, improve nutrient utilization efficiency and stress resilience, and they enhance crop quality. These effects reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, a major cause of GHG emissions in agriculture, and contribute to reducing the environmental burden. Brazil possesses the vast Amazon rainforest, which is often called the lungs of the world. However, a major challenge is that this forest is cut down and converted into farmland and pastures, which are then left to degrade. Aiming to restore the degraded pastures, the Japanese and Brazilian governments established a cooperation framework in March 2025.
Taking this opportunity, we joined the Model Demonstration Project for the Restoration of Degraded Pastures in Brazil as a partner. At COP 30, we presented the results of the verifications using biostimulants in actual farmland in Brazil. Consistent improvements effects were confirmed across multiple crops, and the technical advantages were demonstrated. Therefore, we are collaborating with JICA and other organizations to scale up the project and aim for social implementation. Just like AjiPro-L and its biostimulants, these innovative solutions leveraging AminoScience cannot really create a significant impact on their own. We believe it is necessary to build an ecosystem. To scale up the solution it is essential to address the challenges faced by the producers, i.e., the farmers, in collaboration with the financial institutions, government agencies, and other relevant parties. This page shows the examples of implementation of AjiPro-L.
Farmers, the primary producers, are emitters of GHG and face challenges such as GHG reduction and productivity improvement. AjiPro-L is an effective solution to these challenges, and there are economic and psychological hurdles to its implementation, such as concern about the initial cost and risks. Therefore, we will create a system that provides an incentive for adoption by converting the GHG emissions reduced by introducing AjiPro-L into credits and return a portion of them to the farmers, thereby expanding adoption of our products and services. In addition, for working capital we will establish a financial scheme that allows farmers to use loans at preferential interest rates to alleviate their cost burdens and risks. Now let me briefly explain the credit and financial schemes. First, let's take a look at the trends of carbon credits.
While the market size forecast varies significantly depending on the assumptions, the market is expected to expand through 2030 and 2050, driven by factors such as progress of the GHG emission trading scheme and the long-term large-scale credit purchases by major companies such as Microsoft and Apple. For example, Bloomberg's long-term credit supply outlook predicts that the market, which was approximately $2.4 billion in 2024, will expand to some $500 billion by 2050. In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on the quality of credits, that is, on the effectiveness and reliability of GHG reductions and absorptions that have been materialized. In the agri-food sector, the conversion of GHG reductions into credit is still limited, so emission reductions and absorptions rooted in agriculture and food production sites are areas that can generate environmentally reliable, high-quality credits.
Therefore, we believe this area is likely to expand in the future once we see progress in the development of the relevant frameworks. Based on this understanding, building an ecosystem in view of the development of the credit market will be an effective way to address the social challenge of reducing GHG emissions through the development of solutions. One of the international credit framework we are considering to use is the Joint Crediting Mechanism, JCM, also known as bilateral credit. This mechanism is an international framework that allows Japan to implement its GHG reduction technologies and solutions in partner countries and utilize the resulting reductions and absorptions as credits. It is an important system for promoting overseas deployment of decarbonization technologies we accumulated in Japan.
Currently, Japan has concluded bilateral credit mechanisms, JCMs, with 31 countries, and discussions are underway toward concluding a JCM with Brazil, the co-host country of COP 30. Japanese government is actively supporting these efforts, and we are working in cooperation with the government to promote the overseas expansion of GHG emission reduction solutions in the agri-food sector. At COP 30, as a concrete initiative, 32 private companies, including us, collaborated under the Midori Infinity framework established by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which aims to expand GHG emission reduction technologies in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors overseas. Under this framework, towards the transformation of agri-food systems, we will aim to attract climate finance and build ecosystems across the entire supply chain while also deploying greenhouse gas reduction technologies overseas, which will lead to the conclusion of JCMs.
At COP 30, to demonstrate this direction to the international community, a joint statement from the public and private sectors was issued. Furthermore, we believe that this establishment of the financial schemes, i.e., the financial support and incentives, will also be effective in promoting the adoption of such solutions within the ecosystem. As part of this initiative centered on AjiPro-L, we embarked on new initiatives such as establishing partnerships with financial institutions and building financial schemes. Specifically at COP 30, to create a financial scheme to facilitate GHG emission reductions using AjiPro-L, we signed an MOU for strategic partnership with a major Brazilian financial institution that plays a highly public role in the society. The diagram on this page illustrating the preferential loan mechanism is a simplified version created for today's IR Day event.
By establishing a scheme in which Banco do Brasil provides loans at preferential interest rates to the farmers using AjiPro-L, we believe it is possible to lower the economic and psychological hurdles of the farmers. This bank plays a central role in the agricultural lending in Brazil, and this collaboration is a highly significant initiative in accelerating the overseas expansion of our solutions. Finally, on this page, I will explain the prospects for converting GHG emission reductions into financial values using our solutions. Ajinomoto aims to realize financial value through a three-phased approach. In phase I, we will push forward solution deployment utilizing existing mechanisms such as J-Credits to convert GHG reduction using AjiPro-L and biostimulants into credits, thereby generating credit revenue for the company. Although the size is still limited, GHG reduction achieved by AjiPro-L is already beginning to translate into actual revenue for us.
In phase II, we will leverage the insights gained in phase I to expand our efforts in regions and markets where systems are still under development, such as the JCM in Brazil, with a view to realize carbon credit trading in the future.
By broadening the target regions and schemes, we aim to gradually expand opportunities to monetize GHG reduction value and further expand the deployment of our solutions. phase III. phase III is different in nature from phases I and II. Although there are many uncertainties, this is an initiative that offers the potential for a huge growth if it materializes. In the future, if large-scale policy and institutional changes similar to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act occur in specific countries or regions, our GHG reduction solutions may become eligible for government subsidies and tax incentives, potentially leading to creation of new economic value. We believe it is crucial to secure a position that allows us to flexibly seize opportunities by anticipating long-term institutional changes.
In closing, we will further strengthen our strategic initiatives, leveraging the strength of AminoScience in collaboration with stakeholders across the entire value chain and even going beyond that. Furthermore, while steadily reducing negative impacts, we will continue to expand the creation of positive impacts and strive for sustainable and dramatic improvements in our corporate value. That's all for myself, and thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you very much, Nakamura-san and Ono-san. Now I would like to go into Q&A session. First of all, let me explain how to ask questions. If you wish to ask questions on the screen, please press "Raise Hand" button, and then we'll call names. If your name is called, please unmute yourself and speak up. Those of you who are participating in the webinar in English, you can ask questions in English and simultaneous interpretation will be provided for responses. There are so many questions that might prohibit us to cover all the questions, so I'd like to ask for your kind understanding. Let me start the question and answer session. Please press the "Raise Hand" button if you wish to ask questions. From Goldman Sachs, Miyazaki-san, please.
I am Miyazaki from Goldman Sachs. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you. There are two questions. The first question, there's advertising regulation that you mentioned. In your company, because of that situation, you are working on reduced salt and reduced sugar as one of the solutions. Among your products, any products that are subject to such advertising regulation and then thereby making you accelerate your initiatives? Anything? You talked about Asia mainly today, but there are frozen foods in regions other than Asia. Is there any examples where you addressed advertising regulations for your products? That's my first question. Second question is AjiPro-L.
Those that are introducing this AjiPro-L, there are multiple clear benefits that you mentioned, but only those alone, the economics of farmers may not be ensured, so you need to have some promotional activities. Is that the truth or There is a shortage of working capital, so once you introduce that system, then farmers can immediately enjoy the benefit of introduction of AjiPro-L. Which one is the case?
Thank you very much, Miyazaki-san for your question. To answer your first question about advertising regulation in regions other than Asia, but in each of the countries, there are advertising regulations are different. Based on the country, we have to take appropriate actions. Sometimes we can appeal on our products or maybe we may not advertise our products directly, so our approaches are different from country to country. For second question, as for AjiPro-L, at the moment, the feed that is being used has to be reduced in cost, and that is the economic benefits directly enjoyed by the farmers. But from the farmers' perspective changing feed is a big psychological problem.
There should be some economic value, like science-based basis that has the data and this can lead to the credit through greenhouse gas reduction. There should be some incentives to introduce the products. We are working with the finance sector and the governments to facilitate the usage of farmers. Ono-san, do you have anything extra to say?
Thank you for the question, Miyazaki-san. As Nakamura said, to change the feed, especially the protein in the feed, is to be reduced with the same benefit. That is going to be a huge cost reduction. Once you actually decide to do that or in order to get them decide to do that, there is some courage required and, there is a huge leap that they have to overcome. You need to provide a deep support for that. Thank you. For that first question about advertising regulation, there's a follow-up question. The regulations are different from country to country, so you're taking appropriate actions all the time. For the past year or two especially, has there been any big change that you've experienced?
Because of that, in Asia, Europe or the U.S., you are forced to take some actions. Which one is the case? Well, in some countries, for excessive salt content is FOP package that is or labeling that is required in. With that labeling, if you ask me if there has been permanent changes in consumer behavior, no. I don't know if I'm answering your question directly, but it's there's no particular increased advertising regulations and thereby address increased approach that we have to take.
Okay, thank you very much.
Miyazaki-san, thank you very much for the question. Moving on to the next questioner, and this will be from UBS Securities. Ihara-san, please begin your question.
Hello. Thank you very much for the explanation. My name is Ihara from UBS Securities. All right, then I have two questions as well. My first question, in the agri-food system, GHG gas reduction and the business opportunities. After listening to your presentation, AjiPro-L initiative and the biostimulants, those initiatives sounded very interesting, and I thought they offer a great business opportunity. But in reality, to what extent do these have a financial or quantitative impact? Can you elaborate on that?
Over the mid to long term when you announced the ASV management direction, you said that biostimulant impact will be about JPY 15 billion at that time, but you said you're going to double that towards JPY 30 billion by 2030. AjiPro-L sales was about only JPY 5 billion, but you wanted to increase this to JPY 20 billion by towards 2030. That was a target you raised, but what is the progress you have been making so far? Are you moving ahead of the plan? What is the tailwind? If it's lagging behind the plan, what is the obstacle? If you can talk about that. That's my first question. Then my second question, with the Trump administration now in office, what is the impact on GHG gas reduction?
I'm sure GHG reduction is necessary over the mid to longer term, but for the GHG reduction, the temperature differences, I think, is there. Has it changed after Mr. Trump took office in the United States?
Thank you very much, Mr. Ihara, for the question. Regarding the first question, regarding the business opportunities, the potential for growth. Biostimulants, as we explained earlier, due to climate change, the crop yield is coming down, and that is going to offer us a big business opportunity. In the green partner partnership between Japan and Brazil, this has been really well recognized. Going forward with the climate change, in order to maintain the crop yield, I think this will offer us great business potential. The business size, as Mr. Ihara mentioned that is the current level.
It's about double some tens of billions of JPY. We are aiming to double this by 2030. A major growth is anticipated. When it comes to AjiPro-L, the economic value is already there. The feed cost can be reduced. That's one of the attractiveness of this product. But in addition to that, with the environmental impact then added to that, the incentive for introducing this product will further increase. Currently it's about tens of billions, single billions of JPY, but we would like to increase this to tens of billions of JPY in 2030 in terms of the business size. The second question regarding the Trump administration's impact. Not only talking a lot about sustainability, it's not resonating well among the partners anymore.
We would like to talk about the economic value, something additional, so that we can make an environmental contribution to some extent. Over the mid- to longer-term, towards the climate change, the urgent challenges, I think, is a common understanding across many countries. The mid- to longer-term trend remains unchanged according to our view. Ono-san, if you want to comment.
No, nothing for me to add in particular. Thank you.
Thank you very much. GHG emission reduction initiatives, AjiPro-L part. I would like to ask some more questions. AjiPro-L ecosystem development and the carbon credit-related framework you have to establish the framework for that. That sounds very interesting. On the other hand, AjiPro-L in Japan, it's not proliferating, and maybe one of the obstacle is that ZEN-NOH may be playing a role here according to my personal consideration. In terms of your efforts with ZEN-NOH, have you made any progress? For example, in Japan, maybe this is not spreading so much. This is because of those trade unions are in place. In the world, globally, in order to build an ecosystem, other than the financial institutions, are there any bottlenecks that you need to address?
Can you elaborate on that point as well?
Well, thank you very much for the question. As you rightly pointed out, with Kagoshima Prefecture, we have some joint efforts as well, which is producing good results. The cattle adopting this product are increasing in Kagoshima as a result of that. Who's the decision-maker deciding on the feed? It will be the national government. It may be different depending on the country. It may be different depending on the company. If it's a directly operated farm by the company, the company makes a decision. If it's a contract manufacturer, the suggestion comes in first. The fertilizer or the feed advisors are there at the local level, so it is also important to incorporate those advisors. It is also important for us to provide science-backed data.
Receive the certification of the administration. That's also a very important initiative. Ono-san, do you have anything to add?
Well, thank you very much for that comment. Ihara-san, in the world, other than the financial institutions, the farmers, how they find this attractive is something very important because it is very important to raise the awareness of these initiatives in the first place because many of the farmers are not aware that these initiatives are available. That was something that we realized after at COP 30. The agri-food system emission level is so high, and that is beginning to be recognized broadly right now. How to reduce emission from the agri-food sector, actually, the solutions themselves are not really broadly recognized.
We have to expand the recognition first and foremost, and also expand the partnership with the financial institutions and the government agencies. Because of these factors, we have decided to visit and take part in the COP 30 as a team. First before the bottleneck, the recognition is the most important undertakings that you have to address right now.
Thank you very much for the explanation.
Thank you very much for your questions, Ihara-san. Now next question. BofA Securities, Mr. Sumoge-san, please.
Thank you very much, Sumoge from BofA Securities. Thank you. I also have question which is related to Ihara-san's question on AjiPro-L for clarification. The sales, as you said, single-digit billions of JPY and 2030 to double-digit billions of JPY. There is a potential that you're expecting from this product. For this product, this product has been around since 15 years ago, and the business is for animals. This was positioned as growth drivers, and this was rolled out or the intention to be rolled out in North America first. Since then, there's not been too much penetration, and I'm under the impression that this has made this very slow progress.
You have made contracts with food or meat manufacturers in Brazil, and also you have a partnership with Banco do Brasil. There has been further progress, prominent progress made recently. Why is it now that you can expect more growth? Has it been because of wider recognition, or you have established a scheme for the past 10 years so that you are now finally in a position to aim for growth? Why are you in the position to be able to expand? Can you explain more about the background, please?
Thank you very much for your question. As you said, for AjiPro-L, there has been a long development history behind. In the past, we were focusing on North America livestock manufacturers to enhance economic value by reducing feed cost. That's how we have sold our products. When you look at feed prices. That was the incentive to decide whether to introduce this. The soybean price would decide whether to use the feed or not. There's a price balance between soy and other contents, and there is a difference in prices, and that fluctuated, and that has also fluctuated our business. Carbon credit business in the U.S. was making slow progress as well.
More recently, Danone and other major meat producers are now looking at Scope 1 or Scope 3 procurement to reduce greenhouse gas. They have set up their targets for this. Larger companies are now paying more attention to this. Also from government officials with Japanese technologies, we are hoping to contribute to the reduction of the GHG emission. That has actually accelerated the introduction because of increased attention. In terms of cost, like soybean price has been increasing, so that's why AjiPro-L cost has attracted attention. Is that correct? Well, the demand is different from country to country. In U.S., the soybeans had been exported to China, but now not anymore, so there is some surplus.
Depending on the markets, it's different. Global companies in larger markets are now more focused on greenhouse gas emission reduction, even in the livestock business. That is the most important factor. It's not just simply looking at the cost benefits that major meat manufacturers are focusing on, but rather there is some sense of urgency because of global trends such as COP30. Is that true? There was some livestock negative campaign that was made once. Actually, livestock industry is a noble job to support the food for human beings, but now there had been some bashing. If you can reduce the economic cost and then contribute to environmental value, that would be really precious.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Sumoge, for your question. Now moving on. We are still taking questions. We can take second round of questions if you have any questions. It doesn't have to be a question. We can always take comments as well. So if you have any comments or questions, please indicate by pressing the Raise Questions button. Thank you. Okay. The second round of question. Thank you very much. This is from Goldman Sachs, Miyazaki-san. Thank you very much. Please go ahead with your question.
This is Miyazaki again from Goldman Sachs. So sorry for the second round of the question. So sorry that this may be ambiguous, a comprehensive question. Regarding COP 30, in the discussion so far, we talked about the transition to the Trump administration, which led to slowing down of some initiatives, of some progress that has been made. In 28, 29, 20,30, in COP 28, 29, 30, after following these initiatives, have you really realized any changes or the differences in the position by each country? Also, you mentioned during your presentation that the undertakings of each company may not be aligned with the government's direction in each country. If you have noticed any atmosphere through your participation in COP 30, if you can elaborate and share that with us, that we'd appreciate it.
Yes, Mr. Miyazaki. Thank you very much for the question. I attended both COP 29 and 30, both of them.
As I mentioned during my speech, the interest for agri-food system is rising. Mr. Trump's influence, especially in the energy sector and the coal sector, there is, I think, may be a headwind. The agri-food importance and also given the climate change, the coffee and cacao prices are increasing, and they are still considered to be an urgent task that we have to address. Also the Climate Week NYC was held in New York in September last year, and also I have also participated in the United Nations Global Compact. America, the United States, is not really strongly promoting global sustainability, but as a the activities is not really dampened, if you will. That's what I feel as an atmosphere.
Ms. Ono, do you have any additional comments?
Well Mr. Miyazaki, thank you very much for the question. This is a question that we receive frequently from many other people, and also we are engaged in information exchange with other companies. The litigation risk and due to other elements, at some companies, some companies do not officially talk this broadly in front of the public because of these issues. They maybe continue activities by changing expression to resilience in some cases. In Europe, it's not really receding, but they are now rather focusing on areas where they can strike a balance with business growth. That is happening both at the government level as well as the enterprise level. The mode of expression may have changed.
However, the things that we have to address over the mid to long term remains unchanged, and it's done under the surface because they have to tackle this, in any event. That's the impression that I have. Also what is important and big is that, as you can see on the slide, 70% of our procurement comes from natural capital, i.e., the raw materials. Agri-food system is intertwined very closely with those natural capital. There is a mounting momentum to address this issue because, for one thing, Brazil, the host country of COP 30, is a major producer in this area. They made a move to address this. That was certain because in every pavilion this discussion was taking place. I felt that that was a big tailwind for us. Thank you.
That's all for myself. Thank you.
One more thing that I wanted to ask, wellbeing, that kind of expression, you started to utilize this expression from early on. Regarding wellbeing, what's your view on the interest level of the society at large? Is this accelerating according to your understanding, or do you think the momentum has somewhat dampened compared to before but still expanding at the grassroots level? What is your view on the recognition level of this expression, wellbeing? If you can share your view with some examples that would be appreciated.
Well, thank you. Wellbeing, for us we are working together with the University of Oxford. I mean, eating together with other people in order to raise their wellbeing. We have obtained some scientific data to prove this. Food and we're eating together, those were the elements that we addressed this time around. Also there are some other wellbeing related solutions that we can demonstrate with AminoScience. We would like to appeal this using science-based data going forward. The recognition for wellbeing around the world, the wellbeing index shows something similar to GDP. There are some people suggesting that kind of index is going to be created, so I don't think the atmosphere or the momentum has decreased. What's your view, Ono-san, if you have anything to add?
I'm sorry. Yes. Wellbeing itself this expression itself there's no clear global definition, and this could be quite subjective. Depending on the individual, the perception is different, and therefore the definition may be different which is making it difficult to understand. As Mr. Nakamura mentioned, on a global, I don't think the momentum has decreased, rather the next target of SDG where there's an activity to include wellbeing as part of the SDG target. This is an effort spearheaded by the Japanese government, so that kind of discussion is now also emerging. Also in our case, we are trying to contribute to the wellbeing of society and Earth through AminoScience. People, society, and the Earth.
For broadly in these areas, we would like to make contribution to the wellbeing of all these elements, and we believe we can make a contribution to the wellbeing of society and the Earth and sustained by AminoScience. That remains unchanged, and it remains intact. We thought that we have to make further efforts in order to have this recognized broadly by the society. We have to communicate this better so that we can increase the stakeholders who will reinforce these efforts together with us. The message, the task we have to continue working on is to expand this message across. Thank you very much for your explanation. That's all for myself.
Thank you very much for your questions, Mr. Miyazaki. Let us move to the next question. Citigroup Securities, Mr. Watanabe-san, please.
Thank you. I am Watanabe from Citigroup. There's one very fundamental rudimentary question. For AjiPro-L biostimulant business, in this business, what is the differentiating point and competitive advantage as compared to chemical manufacturers? Also, frozen gyoza and seasoning or for many specific seasonings or B2C, in and strong brand, you have also strong sales forces. But in this biostimulant business, according to this presentation, the chemical manufacturers have larger share, in my assumption, in Japan as well as in overseas. In the areas where chemical manufacturers tend to be strong, what is the differentiating factor and the competitive advantage that you can demonstrate as a background? If you can enlighten me, that would be appreciated.
Thank you very much for your question, Mr. Watanabe. AjiPro-L and biostimulant, what is the source of competitive advantage for us? That's the question. As for AjiPro-L, of course, we are one of the top amino acid manufacturers, and lysine, an amino acid, is produced and then it has to be delivered more efficiently, and there is scientific data that has been taken. Of course there's competition, but our delivery efficiency to internal to intestine and GI intestine is really the best. There are various versions, and there is also research and development to enhance efficiency from the current generation to the next generation. Of course, the recognition is not enough for our products.
We have the science-based solutions, and that has to be recognized more. By promoting that, we can establish ecosystem, and also we could partner with chemical manufacturers, if, in my view, so that we can appeal on the products. As for biostimulant, there's a different positioning for us compared to chemical manufacturers. We are looking at the sugarcane and cassava, and amino acid is produced from there. Then the fermentation liquid is used to produce plant supplements. The way it works is different, and the concept behind the products are different. The amino acid fermentation liquid is something that we have to take advantage of as biostimulant, and we would like to improve our recognition of our products. Thank you.
The characterization from the amino acid or derived from an amino acid is taken advantage of. That's my understanding. Thank you.
Watanabe-san, thank you very much for the question. We are still taking questions. If you have any further questions or comments, please indicate by pressing the Raise Hand button. Are there any questions? Asset Management One, Yano-san, please begin.
Asset Management One. My name is Yano. Thank you very much for appointing me. I am an ESG analyst, by the way. After Mr. Trump took office as president, financial and non-financial initiatives impact on financial performance is something that people are paying a lot of attention to. Investors like ourselves also believe that is necessary because otherwise, the good undertakings or companies may not last for such a long time. Given that, after Mr. Nakamura, after you became Chief Executive Officer or even before you became Chief Executive Officer, speed up and scale up. You have been quite aware of this in your corporate management. I'm so sorry for my lengthy comment. ESG undertakings at Ajinomoto is quite extensive, and you have a very resilient supply chain that you aspire to create.
In order to create that kind of supply chain, you are undertaking many efforts. Speed up and the business portfolio transformation. For these things, are there anything that you would like to change compared to the conventional approach? Because for example there could be good initiatives, but if the continuation of such initiatives will be an obstacle for you to do some speed ups. I thought that such case may apply because you have so many initiatives that it's being promoted by the company. If you can comment on that would be appreciated.
Yano-san, thank you very much for the question. The sustainability framework is ESG, and we have a lot of ESG-related initiatives, including financial and non-financial initiatives. We have been communicating this, whether this is related to our business portfolio, whether this results in speed up. As far as the business portfolio is concerned, there are many valuation yardsticks, such as the strength of a company and also comparing with the speed of the market, whether we can offer a unique products to the market. We will consider the business portfolio from those aspects. Sustainability-related initiatives that we have introduced today, AjiPro-L and biostimulants, those are also positioned as growth areas for the company, and this will allow us to leverage our strengths. This is also aligned with our business portfolio.
The business strategy, sustainability strategy will be aligned together and achieve speed up and scale up at the same time. That remains intact. Also the negative impact reduction for those efforts, cost reduction and also impact reduction will have to be done at the same time. That's the priority area that we are focusing on, such as reducing the electricity charges by replacement to renewable energies. Also, in order to reduce our plastics, we are using thin packaging materials in order to reduce the plastic emissions. Those are the things that we define as priority, and we're working on them. We are looking into speed up and scale up at the same time as we address these issues.
Thank you. As part of those efforts, have there been any changes after you became Chief Executive Officer? Have you changed anything compared to the conventional method?
Well, my predecessor was quite aware of sustainability, that's at the cornerstone of ASV management. Mr. Fujie also had that kind of mindset. There's nothing new after I took office, but I'm trying to accelerate the speed up and scale up because the quick development systems is my motto. In order to expedite the speed of scale up and speed up, we are looking into many different initiatives, including the cooperation with the financial institutions and government agencies. With Banco do Brasil, I met with them and had a lot of discussions with them. Also, I met with the Chief Executive Officer of this very big meat producer. I'm trying to scale up and scale up of whatever I can do.
Yes, certainly. We talked about you are now increasing the touchpoints, not only on North America, but also other touchpoints around the world. That's an area that you are intentionally working on. Yes, listening to people in the field is something that I value so that we can listen to the direct voices of the customers.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your question, Ms. Yano. Are there any other questions or comments? On Japanese and English webinars, we are entertaining questions if there are any. No more questions? If there is none, we are still early, but we'd like to conclude Q&A session. Thank you very much. Last but not least, I'd like to ask Mr. Nakamura to say a few words.
Well, as we mentioned today, in Ajinomoto Group, we are positioning sustainability initiative as core of ASV initiative, and we co-create a social and economic value with the integration of business strategy and accelerate business growth to achieve sustainable corporate value. I'd like to ask for your kind continued cooperation and support. Thank you for your attendance today.
With that we'd like to conclude today's meeting. Thank you for your attendance once again. This is the end of the session. Thank you.