KEY INTERVIEW: Biorigin Highlights the Importance of Sustainability in its Supply Chain

17 Oct 2016 --- Zilor transforms sugar cane into food and clean energy, respecting the environment and communities where it is located. Sustainability is a huge part of its agenda and as a producer of sugar, ethanol and energy for more than 65 years it has been well ahead of the curve and built up some serious sustainability credentials over the years.

Biorigin is Zilor’s business arm which uses biotechnology to develop natural ingredient solutions for food as well as for animal health and nutrition. 

FoodIngredientsFirst caught up with Biorigin business unit manager, Claudia Crepaldi, based in the Sao Paulo region of Brazil as the company’s latest sustainability reports comes out. As the trend for clean and clear labels gathers momentum, she explains how the biggest challenge is to ensure the end-consumers knows exactly the right information so they can make informed choices. 

“We work with our customers to produce the final product in agreement with what end consumers are looking for and we focus on natural ingredients and natural solutions for the food industry. For us the market strengths are looking for natural solutions, clean solutions, but it’s more and more about clear labels with people looking at a clear label so that consumers can understand what they are using,” Crepaldi says.

“We offer natural ingredients that contribute to build taste, color and also deliver a health opportunity as work to reduce the sodium content and a functional ability, contribute to enhance nutritional value or maintain the integrity of the food naturally. Currently we can see the frequent discussion on natural concept and the lack of clear regulation is one of the biggest challenges for companies like us, that produces 100 percent natural ingredients.”

As a producer, Biorigin needs to work hard to explain the processes in order to educate the end consumer in the right aspects of the ingredients and health claims because even though it is not directly in the business-to-consumer market, it’s customers are, and the appeal to the end-consumer is the ultimate driver of new innovations. 

“More and more people are using the internet and social media such as Facebook, in general people are learning more about the products themselves. This will likely grow, and at the same time it’s our responsibility, as part of the food industry, to be able to explain to consumers correctly. Sometimes people can do a simple online search and get easy access to some information which is not necessarily right; it’s important for us to be as clear as possible with our information and inform people in the right way.”

Traceability is as important as sustainability and because Biorigin works directly producing its own raw material, has offices in Antwerp and Brazil and factories in the US and Brazil, Crepaldi says it can guarantee the chain of production - a major advantage in telling an authentic story. 

“Biorigin has a unique set up controlling the all chain of production, which give us a full traceability of the product, generating final products, produced from Bonsucro certified source, and non-GMO. We also produce our own raw material, through sugar cane we produce our molasses and our molasses are the raw material to produce our final products. Therefore we can guarantee the chain of production, which means ensuring that we produce in a sustainable way.”

On top of this, Biorigin is also a Sedex member, audited by Smeta. Sedex is the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange, is a not for profit membership organization dedicated to driving improvements in responsible and ethical business practices in global supply chains.

Double Food Production Capacity 
Biorigin recently completed an expansion which is set to double food production, notes Crepaldi. 

“We finished an expansion earlier this year which started in 2014 and just finished now which will increase production. This was done to help us deliver tailor-made products to our customers where we can grow together and create value through strong synergies, so now we are ready to deliver new developments. We also have an extensive and prepared distribution network with the capacity to deliver worldwide.”

In terms of research and development, Biorigin promotes a philosophy throughout its business and workforce that good R&D is not just about creating innovations. 

“Over the next year we are building up a concept that innovation is not just an R&D responsibility, it should be part of the heart of our company so we’d like all employees to work towards the overall innovation of the company, while we also need to work in real innovations in terms of products,” she explains. 

Sustainability Report 2016
The fifth edition of Zilor´s and Biorigin Sustainability Report, with information related to the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 crops, has just been published in accordance with the international standard established by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

The report looks into ten topics - economic impact, product responsibility and client satisfaction practices, technology and innovation, work conditions, people management, responsibility for the supply chain, relationship with local community, energy generation, consumption and commercialization biodiversity preservation and soil conservation and water resource - which were defined based on the opinion of several stakeholders, through qualitative and quantitative consultations with representatives of the local community, public sector, regulatory agencies, distributors, suppliers, associations and industry entities, financial institutions, Biorigin customers, and employees.

At-a-glance the report highlights include:

• Renewable energy: - 98 percent of consumed energy is renewable;
• 14 percent reduction in gas emission rate compared to 2014/2015 (scopes 1 and 2 - Biorigin); - - 6 percent reduction in energy consumed compared to 2014/2015 (Biorigin).
• Biorigin’s ingredients have neutral carbon emission in their production process and take this sustainable quality to the products of their customers.
• Waste reuse - 99.98 percent rate of agricultural and industry reuse of all production-generated waste; 
• Biodiversity protection: - 81.5 hectare Restored Forest; 
• More than R$ 6.6 million in environmental protection for initiatives of monitoring, effluents, environmental management, waste treatment and destination. 
• R$ 2.6 million invested in healthier and safer work environments.

“Sustainability to Zilor is defined in aspects that go beyond what everyone knows as the environmental, social and economic triple bottom line concept; it has been our core business, and it has been our vocation and our way of doing business for 70 years. With the sugarcane, we accomplish our social and corporate responsibility mission of producing food and energy that contribute to lessening the effects of climate change and to nourish the ever growing population,” adds CEO Antonio José.

by Gaynor Selby