Bunge and Solazyme Expand Joint Venture Into Nutrition

02 Nov 2015 --- Solazyme, a pioneer in microalgae innovation and Bunge Limited, a leading global agribusiness and food company, have agreed to expand their joint venture to include a focus on food. The expansion includes a range of breakthrough oils for food and products for animal nutrition.

The expanded joint venture will build on Solazyme’s ground-breaking microalgae innovation platform, and on Bunge’s global leadership in food and ingredients, including vegetable oils. As part of the JV expansion, the partners also entered into an agreement to expand their co-funded research programs to include new unique products in nutrition and specialty fats. Manufacturing will take place in the JV’s world-class fully operational facility in São Paulo state, Brazil, site of the largest aerobic fermentation vessels in the world.

As part of the agreement, AlgaWise Ultra Omega-9 Algae Oil, AlgaWise High Stability Algae Oil and AlgaWise Algae Butter structuring fats will be marketed by Bunge’s established global food oil sales and applications team, who bring strong expertise and a global footprint. In addition, Bunge will handle oil processing and supply chain aspects of commercialization.

The expanded JV will manufacture and commercialize a range of new to the world, highly differentiated products, each providing breakthrough solutions to meet major needs in the food industry:
• AlgaWise Ultra Omega-9 Algae Oil is a clean tasting oil with the highest level of monounsaturated fats (>90%) on the market and the lowest level of saturated fat of any food oil (<4%). This oil is ideal for meeting market demand for healthier alternatives to saturated fat oils, providing shelf-life stability and excellent culinary performance with one of the highest smoke points available.
• AlgaWise High Stability Algae Oil delivers step change performance with one of the highest stabilities of any oil on the market, over 87% monounsaturated fatty acids and only 2% polyunsaturates, less than any other food oil. High Stability Algae Oil drives unprecedented oxidative stability with zero trans-fat per serving. With an exceptionally neutral flavor and high stability under varying conditions, this is a high performance oil that works well in industrial frying, spraying/coating, pan spraying and blending. It can enable food manufacturers to remove added preservatives in everyday favorite foods such as dressings and mayonnaise, achieving cleaner labels with fewer ingredients, as well as completely removing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
• AlgaWise Algae Butter has a composition and functionality mirroring high value structuring fats such as shea stearin, with a high proportion of stearic-oleic-stearic triglycerides (~70%). This unique oil can be used in a wide range of products. It is expected to have significant value in confectionery based on its reliable, scalable and sustainable supply, as well as offering a better performing alternative for bakery, confectionary, spreads and other applications. The product is expected to be available for the U.S. market in 2016.

Soren Schroder, CEO, Bunge Limited, said, “Strengthening our relationship with Solazyme gives us a differentiated product offering in specialty food and feed ingredients. With Solazyme, we believe we are bringing true innovation and enhanced sustainability to the global food industry. These healthier algae products have tremendous potential to make a positive impact in nutrition and functionality for our customers around the globe, and we’re excited about the potential to broadly commercialize them.”

“Bunge is a leading global agribusiness and food company, and has been a strong long-term partner who shares our vision. Not only do they have fantastic capabilities but they also understand the value of both our ingredients and our underlying technology platform. We are very happy to be deepening and expanding the partnership to include Bunge’s global food sales, marketing, and applications strength and presence. This will further enable our algae-based food ingredients to bring great benefits to people and our planet,” commented Jonathan Wolfson, Solazyme’s CEO.

The products in the scope of the JV will be produced at the joint venture’s manufacturing facility in Brazil adjacent to Bunge’s Moema sugarcane mill. The oils produced have one of the lowest carbon and water footprints of any broadly available vegetable oils and achieve substantially higher oil yields per acre than those of most oilseed crops.

The announcement follows a history of collaboration between the two companies, beginning with Bunge’s 2010 equity investment in Solazyme, followed by the original Joint Venture agreement in April 2012 that established the production facility at Moema as well as multiple jointly funded development programs over that period of time.