Beyond The Headlines: Nordzucker advances sustainable sugar extraction, Fermata’s AI-powered crop systems

30 Aug 2024 --- This week in industry news, Nordzucker enhanced its sugar production’s energy efficiency with a new German site and Fermata tapped into AI to automate crop screening and enhance pest detection. Meanwhile, US scientists found that a decline in pollinator count is impacting yields of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, and Japanese researchers developed a methodology for predicting crop yields of tomatoes and strawberries.

Business highlights

German sugar manufacturer Nordzucker finished the construction of its new sugar extraction tower in Uelzen. The move will help the company increase the energy efficiency during processing and save around 10,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year. The new tower will commence operations next month. The new construction is a part of the company’s GoGreen sustainability program, in which it aims to invest nearly €300 million (US$332.6 million) for the decarboniZation of its production sites over the next five years, thereby reducing the sugar’s carbon footprint.

NutriFusion joined forces with Drink Todo to elevate the meal replacement drinks’ nutritional profile. The move is set to enhance Todo’s nutritional profile with NutriFusion’s blends sourced from 21 fruits and vegetables that target weight loss, muscle recovery and overall health. Todo contains prebiotics, adaptogens, antioxidants and fiber. The beverage also offers a milk base of 25g of complete protein without artificial sweeteners or added sugar. The drink’s fiber comes from spinach, broccoli, kale, pumpkin, chlorella, sweet potato, cranberries, shiitake, maitake mushrooms, and sunflower seeds.

Nordzucker is saving around 10,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year at the Uelzen factory (Image credit: Nordzucker).French family business Bonduelle Group announced plans to sell its packaged salad business in France and Germany amid a structural decline in salad consumption, exacerbated by inflation and increased competition from private labels. The company is negotiating the acquisition of its packaged salad business with Les Crudettes in France and with Taylor Farms in Germany.

Mount Franklin Foods, which manufactures confectionary, nuts, snacks and foodservice products, acquired Pennsylvania, US-based Stuffed Puffs. The move marks a significant step in broadening the company’s confectionery portfolio. The acquisition is effective immediately, and financial details have not been disclosed. Stuffed Puffs formulates marshmallow products filled with milk chocolate and other ingredients using its proprietary technology.

Agriculture highlights

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) partnered with American business owners to expand innovative domestic fertilizer production. The department is awarding US$35 million for seven state projects through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program (FPEP). USDA has invested US$286.6 million in 64 projects across 32 states through FPEP. 

Fermata, a data science company specializing in computer vision agriculture solutions, collaborated with agRE.tech, which manufactures robotic operating systems for sustainable autonomous agri voltaics farming. The systems help bring AI-powered crop screening to the emerging agri voltaics market. This partnership integrates Fermata’s Croptimus platform, which performs real-time pest and disease monitoring with agRE.tech’s autonomous robotic system to offer growers a fully automated crop management system.

Shiga University's research can impact crops like strawberries to optimize resource use and promote sustainability amidst climate change.Research and launches

US-based Dyverg Brands unveiled its caffeine-free energy drink Avvika, which targets consumers seeking a natural boost without the jitters, crash and negative effects of caffeine. The beverage contains science-backed ingredients like ashwagandha, ribose, L-theanine, a B-vitamin blend, black pepper extract, Bacopa monnieri and soluble corn fiber.

Scientists at the Shiga University in Japan developed a functional data analysis (FDA) methodology for predicting crop yields in year-round cultivation. By analyzing time-series data of strawberries and tomatoes grown in natural-light plant factories, the research describes how factors like temperature and solar radiation influence yields, providing a new tool for optimizing agricultural production. The findings are published in Horticulture Research.

A team of researchers led by Rutgers University-New Brunswick in the US found that a lack of pollinators is limiting the worldwide production of important and nutritionally dense foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes. The results are detailed in Nature Ecology & Evolution and state that across diverse crops and locations, one-third to two-thirds of farms contain fields that aren’t producing at the levels they should be due to a lack of pollinators. The scientists analyzed crop yields of more than 1,500 fields on six continents for the study.

By Insha Naureen