American Lorain Corporation Announces Launch of New Line of Frozen Rice Products Under Lorain® Brand Name

Company to continue expansion into convenience rice foods

American Lorain Corporation (ALN) today announced that the company is launching a new line of frozen rice products under its Lorain® brand name, further expanding its instant rice product line.

The Company will produce these new rice products at its Beijing Lorain facility and are currently promoting the product in key markets in China. These products will be available at local grocery and convenience stores and merchandisers, as well as larger, well-known retailers such as Carrefour. The Company is preparing to also introduce new varieties and flavors of instant rice products to cater to different regions of the country, including these "heat and eat" frozen rice products.

The new frozen rice products differ from original constant-temperature rice products mainly in production methodology. The new products use quick-freeze for preservation purpose, instead of the high-temperature sterilizing process employed by constant-temperature rice products, and were thus able to maintain the most original taste and nutrition of the food.

China's Rice Market

China is the largest producer and consumer of rice in the world, with nearly a third of the global market share. Rice is considered a staple food for 65% of the population in China, where annual rice farm output is about 200 million tons.

American Lorain began selling separate instant rice products under its convenience foods segment in early 2010. The Company produced 127 convenience food products in 2010, including "meals ready to eat" (MRE) rice products for civilian use in the form of microwavable rice boxes, as well as self heating rice packs for the army, which only require water to heat. The Company believes that by leveraging the nationally known Lorain® brand name will further assist its penetration into the promising China rice market.

American Lorain's Chairman and CEO, Mr. Si Chen, stated, "We continue to focus on both diversifying our lines to include a wider variety of food products and leveraging our known brand name among different segments. Rice is considered one of the major foods for the Chinese population, and instant rice products are a huge potential market for our Company. We continue to focus on our development, production and distribution initiatives and will continue to keep investors apprised of our progress."