
BANGKOK/TOKYO -- With increasingly health-conscious consumers losing their appetite for sugar, Asian industry leader Mitr Phol Group will turn its access to sugar cane, cassava and similar crops toward the production of plant-based plastics.
The Thai-based group is teaming with Japanese trading house Marubeni on bioplastics, signing a memorandum of understanding in January. This year they will produce a type of plastic derived both from petroleum and the starch in crops such as cassava.