Kyoto, Japan, April 8, 2002 - (JCN Newswire) - Takara Bio Inc. is pleased to announce that its subsidiary for agricultural biotechnology, Takara Agri Co., Ltd. agreed with Pulmuone Co., Ltd. of South Korea to set up a joint venture that will cultivate and market mushrooms originally developed by Takara Bio to South Korean consumers.

The joint venture will start operations in May and will use technology from its parent companies to cultivate hatakeshimeji and bunashimeji mushrooms, which were originally developed by Takara Bio and which are not currently available in South Korea. Later, the joint venture plans to commercialize new types of mushrooms that the company develops.

Mushrooms are popular in South Korea and are often consumed in a wide selection of home-cooked dishes such as nabe, or stew. According to the South Korea Agriculture and Forestry Department, some 120,000 tons of hiratake, enokitake, Western-style mushrooms and reishiba are produced each year in Korea, a figure that is steadily increasing.

The Takara Bio Group has been involved in mushroom-related research for approximately 35 years, and has put resources into the development of original mushrooms as well as innovative cultivation techniques.

The group's first major success in this area was made 30 years ago, when it became the first Japanese company to artificially cultivate the bunashimeji mushroom. Sold from the JA Zenno Nagano under the trademark Yamabiko Shimeji, this mushroom has annual sales of 20 billion yen. Both hatakeshimeji and bunashimeji contain higher levels of vitamins and minerals than regular mushrooms and contain agents that can prevent cancer.

More recently, the group has developed large-scale cultivation techniques for the mushroom. Takara Bio currently produces and sells these mushrooms on a small scale and is constructing a large-scale hatakeshimeji production plant (to be called Mizuho Nourin Co. in the Tanba region of Kyoto Prefecture.

The joint venture will be located in KYONGSANGBUK-DO in South Korea and will have access to Takara Bio's mushroom cultivation technology. Dr. Ikunoshin Kato and Mr. Jong Chan Bae will both be representative directors at the new company, which is due commence operations with capital of 2 billion won, of which each parent company will provide half.

Corporate Outline of Pulmuone Co., Ltd.
Name: Pulmuone Co., Ltd.
Location: 174-6 Seokchon-Dong, Songpa-Gu, Seoul 138-844, Korea
Capital: 24.9 billion won (as of December 31, 2001)
Operating Activities: Production and sales of natural food products, processed food products, and health foods Established: 1984
Representative: Jong Chan Bae
Net Sales: 208.8 billion won (approximately 20.8 billion yen)
No. of Employees: 1,300

About Pulmuone Co., Ltd.
Puluone is one of South Korea's premier natural food product makers, recording sales of 21 billion yen in 2000. The company also boasts the top share in the market for soy bean-related products such as tofu. Mushrooms produced by the new joint venture will be distributed through Pulmuone's sales network.

This article is translated from press release in Japanese for your convenience.