According to the company, another reason for its increased half-year sales is its focus on the development of ingredients specifically targeting the US functional foods market.
On the opening of its news office in Chino, California, last year, Fenchem had said it was aiming to double its US turnover over the next three years.
Stock and shipment "The new office establishment can guarantee we have a large warehouse system in USA, which will make our product price more competitive and the products will reach cutomers' warehouse within two to three days in the whole North American area," the company 's Junny Liu told NutraIngredients-USA.com at the time.
Fenchem now says that this quick response time is delivering results, and says it is also partly responsible for the increased first half sales.
The firm says that since it opened its US branch it is able to provide customers with shipment within 2-3 days of order placement.
Functional ingredients Fenchem said it is focusing on the development and marketing functional ingredients such as prebiotic inulin, natural antioxidants, natural vitamin E, green tea extract, grape seed extract and pomegranate extract.
The firm also said it has focused efforts on the development of a "prime grade" phytosterol product series.
Two of its new products are granular phytosterol - designed for tablet use - and nano phytosterol, which the firm said has "good solubility" and is designed for use in food applications.
Chinese expansion The company also said it is expanding production capacity as its Chinese plant in order to meet increased demand coming from the US market.
The new facility will focus on the production of Tocovet vitamin E and Cholevel phytosterol.
The firm claims the price of its Tocovet vitamin E is around 10 percent lower than competitor products.
It is available in d-alpha tocopherol succinate, D-gama tocopherol and mixed tocopherols powder, it said.
Cosmaceuticals Last year, the Chinese ingredients supplier said it was positioning some of this range of branded ingredients to take advantage of the emerging market for oral products to deliver outward beauty benefits.
According to Germany's Analyse and Realise, the global market for cosmeceuticals is currently valued at around US$60bn, with a growth rate of 8 to 12 per cent.
The term cosmeceutical refers to both topical and products with active properties; oral products are also known by a number of other names, such as 'skinceuticals' and 'nutricosmetics'.
A spokesperson for the company told NutraIngredients-USA.com in May 2007 that Fenchem is the first Chinese player to offer ingredients aimed at beauty for within, and it has signaled an intention to develop more ingredients for the market.