ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has concluded an agreement with Sensus B.V. (headquartered in North Brabant, Netherlands; Herman Holtus, CEO; hereinafter “Sensus”) regarding the exclusive domestic marketing of inulin (brand name: INULIA^®), water-soluble dietary fiber. Before May 2025, Teijin Limited (headquartered in Kita-ku, Osaka; Akimoto Uchikawa, President and CEO; hereinafter “Teijin”) was in possession of exclusive marketing rights for marketing inulin from Sensus. ITOCHU will be granted these rights in June 2025.

Dietary fiber is divided into two types, water soluble and insoluble. Ingesting a total of 25 grams or more of dietary fiber in a 1:2 ratio of soluble to insoluble dietary fiber is considered to be ideal. The national average intake is only 18.1 grams^*1 and the intake of water-soluble dietary fiber needs to be higher.
Inulin, a representative water-soluble dietary fiber material, dissolves in water and becomes gelatinous in the intestines to improve intestinal health. Soluble in water, inulin is characteristically easy to mix into foods and drinks and to cook. Sensus, a food material manufacturer, hold the second largest share of the global inulin market, making inulin from the root of chicory, a vegetable in the Asteraceae family. Domestically, inulin is available under the brand name INULIA^®.

Beginning in FY2025, INULIA^® is used to make bread for school meals at all elementary and junior high schools in Osaka City. Using INULIA^® to make bread can increase its dietary fiber content and enable students to ingest nearly 75% of the standard dietary fiber intake per school meal required by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.^*2 The improvement of bread dough's shape retention has made it possible to make bread with a lower salt content. The salt intake per school meal for middle-grade elementary school students set at 2.0 grams or less. Using INULIA^® can reduce the salt content per piece of bread (flour content: 60 grams) from 0.96 to 0.60 grams.

Against the background of low dietary fiber intake and a growing awareness of healthy living, the domestic dietary fiber market is expanding. It is expected to grow to 1,064 million dollars (approximately 150 billion yen) in 2033, 1.9 times its size in 2024.^*3 In May 2025, ITOCHU acquired exclusive marketing rights to the dietary fiber-rich BARLEYMAX^® Super Barley™.^*4 Recently, we have acquired exclusive marketing rights to the inulin (brand name: INULIA^®) made by Sensus. To expand the dietary fiber market and promote its research and development, we have also participated in the Fermentable Dietary Fiber Extension Project^*5, a dietary fiber consortium. The sales channel will be enlarged as we expand the dietary fiber business.