Leading American flavor and fragrance brand, International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), has signed a deal with Zhangjiagang worth almost a billion yuan ($150,000 million), to set up a base in the city's free trade zone (FTZ).

The project will cover more than 60,000 square meters, with construction to begin in October this year ready to go into production by April, 2018. The company expects an annual output of 24,000 tons of product and a yield of about 2 billion yuan each year.

The production base will be the company's largest in Asia, with highly-integrated R&D, production and sales, and a factory evaluated against LEED, the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design Building Rating System.

IFF is the biggest flavor and fragrance production company in the United States, and ranks third globally. With its individual research center, IFF has factories, labs and offices in 38 countries and regions.

Zhangjiagang free trade zone officers Bian Dongfang and Zhang Lei attended the project signing ceremony.