Weekly Roundup: Fonterra completes sale of two China farms, Campbell Soup to sell baby food producer Plum Organics

02 Apr 2021 --- This week in industry news, Fonterra completed the sale of two China farms, and Sun-Maid Growers of California is on track to acquire Plum Organics from Campbell Soup Company. Impossible Foods launched an initiative to honor pioneering women working in sustainability and food technology. Meanwhile, Nestlé USA’s Carnation dairy processing facility became the first in the US to achieve the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) certification. The food giant, alongside First Milk and Agricarbon, also developed a soil carbon project.

In brief: Business highlights
Fonterra has completed the sale of its two wholly owned China farming hubs in Ying and Yutian. As announced last October, the sale of the farms to Inner Mongolia Youran Dairy Co. was subject to antitrust clearance and other regulatory approvals in China. These approvals have now been received. The completion of the sale of Fonterra’s 85 percent interest in its Hangu farm to minority shareholder Beijing Sanyuan Venture Capital Co. is progressing and is expected to be completed this financial year.

Sun-Maid Growers of California will acquire Plum Organics, a premium, organic baby food and kids snacks brand, from Campbell Soup Company. Plum Organics offers a wide range of organic foods and snacks to meet the nutritional needs of infants and children. All of Plum’s products are certified organic and non-GMO. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed and the anticipated closing date for the deal is spring 2021.

Sensient Natural Ingredients, a processor and supplier of dehydrated vegetable products and natural food ingredients, is on track to acquire New Mexico Chili Products, a dehydrated chili production facility in Deming, New Mexico, US. The company processes capsicums and a variety of specialty chilies for commercial sale to CPG food manufacturers, spice blenders and foodservice customers.

RSPO ScanApp has been launched in France.The fruit, starch and sugar group Agrana is extending its presence in Asia and acquiring the fruit preparations business of the local food producer Taiyo Kagaku Co. Agrana Fruit Japan will be starting with the production of fruit preparations and includes a fourth Asian country in addition to China, India and South Korea. The fruit preparations plant is located in Yokkaichi, in southern Japan, around 100 km east of Osaka. From there, it will supply customers in Japan’s bakery products sector as well as dairies and ice cream producers. Japan has a constantly growing market for fruit preparations with a volume of around 60,000 metric tons and forecasts annual growth of 2 to 3 percent a year.

Pegasus Tech Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based global venture capital firm, announced a business collaboration with Japan’s food giant Ajinomoto Co. Through the partnership with Pegasus, Ajinomoto aims to accelerate its innovation activities globally by tapping into top startups and emerging trends in the food and healthcare sectors in Silicon Valley and other parts of North America, Europe and Asia. Ajinomoto plans to expedite its global expansion through Pegasus, which has 16 global locations. 

JSBiosciences (JSBio) has announced a partnership with TurtleTree Scientific (TTS). Both parties have signed a letter of intent to collaborate in the development of cell culture media at a commercial scale. JSBio will leverage its strong media development expertise and established local raw material supply chains in this partnership. The group company’s integrated cost control program in the field of biological products will help TTS to achieve high-efficiency, and low-cost production capabilities. After low-cost upstream processes are established, JSBio will help TTS achieve pilot production capacity and subsequently, commercial production scale in Singapore.

Nestlé S.A. has closed the sale of Nestlé Waters North America brands to One Rock Capital Partners in partnership with Metropoulos & Co. for US$4.3 billion. This follows the completion of customary closing conditions.

In brief: Sustainability
Impossible Foods has teamed up with the Vegan Women Summit to launch the Women Building the Future initiative, a program designed to highlight female leaders spearheading sustainability and food technology initiatives and innovations. Impossible Foods and Vegan Women Summit are seeking nominations for “Women Building the Future.” The organizers are looking for women leaders around the world whose work impacts the fields of sustainability and agriculture. Applications will be accepted through April 30, for nominees 13 years old and above. 

Beneo has invested €500,000 (US$586,700) in waterway transport to reduce its reliance on road transport. The project, which has included increasing unloading capacity at the company’s rice starch plant in Wijgmaal, Belgium, will enable Beneo to transport two-thirds of its cargo by barge each year. This will reduce carbon emissions associated with rice’s inbound transport from the harbor to the plant by 20 percent annually.Beneo will halve the number of truck movements to and from Wijgmaal, Belgium, by increasing the volumes transported over water.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has launched a new app enabling consumers to check palm oil's sustainability in their everyday food products by simply scanning the barcode. The RSPO ScanApp calculates the progress of a manufacturer’s sustainable palm oil usage through a robust algorithm that includes members of the RSPO and the public submission of Annual Communication on Progress Reports. 

Nestlé USA’s Carnation facility in Modesto, California, has become the first dairy processing facility in the US to earn certification under the rigorous Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) standard. The Carnation facility uses a “water positive” process to make evaporated milk, meaning the facility redistributes more water for farmers to use than it uses for production and cleaning. The AWS Standard is the first comprehensive global standard for measuring responsible water stewardship across social, cultural, environmental and economic criteria. 

First Milk, Nestlé and Agricarbon have launched a pioneering soil carbon capture project – the first of its kind globally. The project, which establishes a comprehensive and scientifically robust soil carbon baseline for First Milk farms, will use state-of-the-art machinery to carry out intensive soil carbon analysis at a fraction of the usual cost. The approach allows soil carbon sequestration to be quantified over time to support First Milk farmers and customers’ net-zero ambitions. The project’s initial phases are being conducted in partnership with Nestlé, supporting this as part of its climate journey roadmap, building robust scientific data with partners to effectively drive progress in carbon reduction through its supply chain. The project will see high intensity, field-by-field soil carbon stock quantified across 40 farms to extend this to 100 First Milk farms by the end of 2021. 

In brief: Appointments & retirements
Corbion’s Supervisory Board has nominated Dessi Temperley for appointment to the Supervisory Board for four years as of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) in May 2021. 

Tim Rycroft has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). Rycroft, currently COO of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), will take up his position on August 31, replacing Jane King. 

By Elizabeth Green