Beyond The Headlines: Cargill bolsters methane-reduction research, UK food inflation declines

19 Jul 2024 --- This week, Cargill backed methane-reduction research with a US$1 million investment and ADM terminated its lactic and polylactic acid projects amid rising construction costs. Meanwhile, UK food inflation dropped by 0.2% and Generate Capital invested in vertical farm GrowUp to expand its ready-to-eat salad production.

Business highlights
Cargill invested US$1 million in Colorado State University, US, to help fund the university’s AgNext research program that focuses on research to advance sustainable animal agriculture practices and reduce the environmental impact of the beef industry. This includes studying animal feeding practices that can help reduce greenhouse gasses and enteric methane emissions from feedlot cattle. The research will help determine the impact of different ingredients and additives in cattle diets on methane emissions in beef steers fed typical finishing rations and explore methane reduction possibilities. 

UK food inflation dropped by 0.2% points to 1.5% in June, while the headline inflation stayed at 2%, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Competition between retailers is helping to bring down prices for many goods, including essential items like pasta and margarine, noted BRC’s director of insight Kris Hamer. Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices eased for the 15th consecutive month, with the main downward effects coming from a combination of bread and cereals, meat, and fruit. Meanwhile, sponge cake, sugarless breakfast cereal, tinned tuna, kettle chips and orange juice prices went up.

Coca-Cola HBC received a US$130 million loan from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to support further investment and enhance people development and sustainable business practices in Egypt. The loan will support the beverage giant’s ongoing investment in Egypt in existing programs to build the employees’ capabilities, empower young people and women, water and energy efficiency, renewable energy, energy-efficient drinks, coolers, coffee machines and logistics. The cash injection will also advance its focus on sustainable packaging, portfolio innovation, automation and digital innovation.

Competition between retailers is helping to bring down prices for foods like pasta and margarine, says the BRC.ADM and LG Chem terminated their previously announced projects for the production of lactic and polylactic acid. Since the announcement of the joint venture in 2022, construction costs have skyrocketed, said ADM. After exploring various options, the companies found that the projects no longer represented a prudent use of the investors’ capital that would meet their returns objectives.

Coldcart, the first orchestration and optimization platform for frozen and refrigerated parcel logistics, received an oversubscribed US$6.5 million seed financing. With this new funding, Coldcart will grow its installed base of perishable shippers and logistics providers and increase operational efficiencies created by its platform. Coldcart’s platform reduces perishable logistics costs by 15-50% per shipment and refundable shipments by 40-60% in the industrial, food, pharma and sciences sectors.

Investment company Generate Capital and UK-based vertical farm GrowUp invested £38 million (US$41.3 million) to expand the production capacity of GrowUp’s Kent vertical farm to meet the growing demand for its ready-to-eat salads. The move will accelerate the company’s leadership of the UK salad category, support the Unbeleafable and Fresh Leaf Co. brands, drive R&D at GrowUp’s Leaf Lab site in Cambridge, UK and increase GrowUp’s influence as a certified B Corp. GrowUp supplies branded and bagged salads to Tesco.

Fertilizer manufacturer CF Industries Holdings and biofuel producer POET collaborated to pilot the use of low-carbon ammonia fertilizer to reduce the carbon intensity of corn production and ethanol. Ammonia is commonly used as a direct application fertilizer for US corn production, but the conventional ammonia production process is emissions intensive. Using low-carbon ammonia in corn production can reduce the carbon intensity of ethanol by up to 10%. The companies are targeting the fall of 2024 for the first applications of low-carbon ammonia to produce a first crop to be harvested in the fall of 2025.

US-based Nutritional Growth Solutions (NGS) entered into an exclusive Intellectual Property (IP) License Agreement with The Healthy Chef to exclusively produce and distribute The Healthy Chef products in the US and Canada. The exclusive IP License will enable NGS to maximize its US infrastructure and significantly advance its profitability with increased scale. 

Synchronized assembly of Handtmann vacuum fillers in the new production hall (Image credit: Handtmann).Food machinery supplier Handtmann inaugurated a new assembly hall at its production site in Biberach, Upper Swabia, Germany, in the Filling and Portioning Systems division. This includes an investment of around €14 million (US$15 million) in expanding its production capacities. Upon commissioning of the new hall, Handtmann will switch its assembly process to synchronized assembly to optimize workstations and workflows, reduce throughput times and make production quantities more flexibly scalable.

Launches and innovation
US-based Hormel Foods Corporation’s brand SPAM expanded its range of Korean spice blends with SPAM Korean BBQ Flavored, a sweet yet spicy variety that features a bold blend of umami and Korean-inspired spices. The ingredient contains a unique blend of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, paprika and sesame with a hint of spice from gochujang paste, a Korean fermented red chili paste that packs a punch but is well-balanced with sweetness. 

UK plant-based drinks company Framptons unveiled The Wessex Oat Company, a new range of British-farmed oat drinks. The innovative line targets the growing consumer demand for sustainable, locally sourced plant-based options and the ready-to-drink coffee trend. The high-quality oat drinks range can be customized into own-label recipes and includes variants like Unsweetened Oat, Barista Oat, Chocolate Oat, Oat Latte, Caramel Latte and Creamy Oat (launching later this year). 

Seed innovation company Benson Hill shared further advancements in its innovation pipeline for soy markets, including animal feed, soybean oil and biofuels. Many of these innovations are undergoing field testing, focusing on new varieties that provide novel benefits across the agribusiness value chain. The company uses soybean data, its proprietary soy germplasm and millions of data points analysis to address problems for the soy end user with precision and speed.

By Insha Naureen