Beyond The Headlines: Scaling up sustainable seaweed, Tyson Foods shuts chicken plants

11 Aug 2023 --- In this week’s news, Scottish start-up Seaweed Enterprises plans to scale up operations to boost seaweed as an abundant ocean resource for nutritious food. Tyson Foods shuts more chicken plants in the US and Beyond Meat reports net revenues fell by 30.5% for the three months to the end of June compared to a year earlier.

In brief: Business highlights
Scottish start-up Seaweed Enterprises has announced significant investment plans to scale up operations, helping to realize the potential of seaweed as an abundant ocean resource across the country. The company has ambitions to cultivate a UK hub for sustainable seaweed. The large-scale plans are to develop a market-leading primary processing facility to supply a global market set to grow by US$7.8 billion outside of the Far East over the next eight years. The Scottish seaweed industry has seen much interest and change in recent years but is still an under-invested, untapped, and highly fragmented sector, according to the company. Seaweed is a potent and sustainable resource packed full of nutritional benefits for food. It is also known for its cosmetic and pharmaceutical benefits and an agricultural asset as a fertilizer.

Beyond Meat flags that the decrease in net revenue was primarily driven by changes in product sales mix and increased trade discounts.Tyson Foods is closing four more chicken plants in Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri, US, in a bid to cut costs. This is considered a major blow from the meatpacker to the local US communities in these regions. The closures come amid a slowdown in demand for some Tyson Food products, which followed a spike in profits during the COVID-19 pandemic when meat prices soared. The company notes it will move the work done at the closing plants to newer facilities closer to its customers. The plants are expected to close at the end of this year or early next year. Tyson has already closed two other chicken plants, in Arkansas and Virginia, with almost 1,700 employees this year and has also laid off corporate employees.

Beyond Meat has reported financial results for its second quarter ended July 1, 2023, which shows that net revenues were US$102.1 million, a decrease of 30.5% year-over-year. The decrease in net revenues was driven by a 23.9% decrease in the volume of products sold and an 8.6% decrease in net revenue per pound. The decrease in volume primarily reflected weak category demand, especially in the company’s US retail and US foodservice channels, and the cycling of a particularly strong second quarter in 2022. The decrease in net revenue per pound was primarily driven by changes in product sales mix and increased trade discounts, partially offset by pricing changes, flagged the company. 

In brief: Deals & agreements
Univar B.V., a subsidiary of Univar Solutions and Kalsec, a natural ingredient solution provider for the food and beverage industry, have expanded their food ingredients distribution agreement to include three additional European countries. The new agreement authorizes Univar Solutions to exclusively distribute Kalsec’s natural taste & sensory, colors, and food protection ingredient solutions for savory applications in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Univar Solutions says that by offering a vast selection of Kalsec’s quality, natural ingredients to more customers in Europe, it’s helping to shape the future of food by providing innovative and sustainable solutions, recipe development, reach, and distribution.

Oatly Group is expanding its direct relationship with Amazon.(Image credit: Oatly).Oatly Group is expanding its direct relationship with Amazon through a new pan-European arrangement that will see a range of Oatly’s Oat Drink products made available on Amazon beginning later this year across key European markets, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands and Belgium. Oatly will be able to list several of its popular Oat Drink lines across the markets, including Oatly Barista Edition, Oatly Light, Oatly Semi, Oatly Whole, Oatly “No” Sugars and Mini Barista. Since launching a direct relationship with Amazon in the UK last October, Oatly Barista Edition has regularly performed in the top 30 of all grocery products. It is currently #1 in the UK oat drink sales on Amazon. 

Pernod Ricard and Kirin Brewery Company have signed an exclusive agreement for the distribution in continental Europe of Super Premium Japanese whisky FUJI, produced by Kirin’s Group. Pernod Ricard will distribute the brand across 13 markets, including France, Italy, Poland and many central Europe countries, and potentially extend this list to other geographies later.

In brief: Sustainability news
BeeHero, specializing in data-driven precision pollination, has introduced its Pollination Insight Platform (PIP), an in-field sensing solution that measures pollinator activity in crops to improve pollination and increase yields. PIP utilizes BeeHero’s patented in-hive sensors, which provide valuable in-field sensing capabilities for various seed, row, and specialty crops, to enable real-time, data-backed decisions by growers. The new technology builds on and will also contribute to BeeHero’s dataset of bee behavior, the largest such database in the world, fueled by the 200,000 hives under BeeHero management.

Waitrose is working with Diageo to introduce dedicated areas in 253 shops across the UK.In brief: Other highlights
According to a study headed by a Washington State University lead researcher, restaurants can persuade patrons to choose healthier foods by adjusting the font size of numbers attached to nutritional information on menus. Lead researcher Ruiying Cai, an assistant professor at the WSU School of Hospitality Business Management, has said US restaurants with more than 20 locations are already required to show the calorie content of food on their menus. By representing these values incongruously — using physically larger numbers on the page when they’re attached to lower-calorie options and smaller numbers for high-calorie foods — Cai’s research finds that businesses can successfully “nudge” customers toward healthier choices. The study was recently published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management.

Demand for low-alcohol and alcohol-free drinks is growing at such a fast rate that UK high-end grocer Waitrose is working with Diageo to introduce dedicated areas in 253 shops across the UK to make it easier for customers to find Waitrose’s full range of over 70 low and alcohol-free drinks, including beer, cider, wines and spirits. Over the past year, sales of low-alcohol and alcohol-free drinks have grown by 20% at Waitrose. Sales of beer continue to grow the fastest. The introduction of dedicated areas means 60% more space will be given to low and alcohol-free drinks. Research commissioned by Diageo found that seven in ten UK adults want to be able to find low-alcohol and alcohol-free beverages more easily.

 JY Corporation has been selected as one of the 30 companies to participate in this year’s "Social Economy Enterprise Growth Intensive Support Project," organized by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The company sells high-quality foods and consumer health, including tea, Jeju Island black pork, and elephant garlic. The company’s newly released enoki mushroom tea uses only pesticide-free enoki mushrooms and is produced and sold in amounts exceeding about 10 tons of enoki mushrooms. Enoki mushrooms, which are certified as pesticide-free, are manufactured using only pesticide-free enoki mushrooms grown at the Honam Mushroom Farming Association in Naju, Jeollanam-do, one of the largest producers of enoki mushrooms in Korea, and can be safely drunk.

By Gaynor Selby