Weekly Roundup: Azelis and Alvinesa expand APAC footprint, Oats trending for UK consumers

10 Mar 2023 --- This week in industry news, Azelis partnered with Alvinesa Natural Ingredients to strengthen its Asia Pacific food and nutrition portfolio. A new Evolva and Grace Breeding cooperation is set to replace chemical fertilizers with nature-based alternatives. Meanwhile, oats are trending for consumers in the UK.

In brief: Business moves
Azelis partnered with Alvinesa Natural Ingredients, a European-based provider of plant-based ingredients. With this new alliance, Alvinesa will be able to expand its footprint to the Asia Pacific region, bringing its portfolio to a more global audience. This mandate will expand Azelis’ lateral value chain in India, Korea and Vietnam with the addition of Alvinesa’s range of natural products, allowing the Azelis group to provide additional solutions for the growing nutraceuticals market. Alvinesa’s range of natural products are made from grape and olive pomace for use in the food, beverage, nutraceutical and animal nutrition industries. 

Evolva and Grace Breeding, an ag-climate-tech company developing biological-based products, joined forces to replace chemical nitrogen fertilizers for crops with eco-friendly and cost-effective Alvinesa is a “circular economy” player that upcycles and transforms agricultural coproducts into valuable natural ingredients.biofertilizers. Grace Breeding’s sustainable proprietary plant-based formula Bio-Fertilizer (NFT) leveraged Evolva’s precision-fermentation platform to boost crop yields without harming soil and causing chemical runoff entering bodies of water.

Batory Sweetener Solutions, a business unit of Batory Foods, agreed with Canada-based sugar reduction experts NutraEx Food to distribute the SugarLike line. The sweeteners portfolio will be added to Batory Sweetener Solutions’ broad portfolio of high-quality food ingredients. As consumers continue to prioritize health and nutrition, SugarLike products provide validated sugar reduction while meeting the high expectations of taste and sweetness for a variety of applications, including bakery, confectionary, dairy, supplements and tabletop, as well as beverages such as juices, milks and milk alternatives and carbonated drinks.  

In brief: Sustainability highlights 
The California Prune Board launched a multi-channel marketing strategy in Japan, showcasing California Prunes’ versatility, taste and nutritional benefits. Japan is California Prunes’ largest export market, with the Board having promoted its premium products for over three decades. The B2B campaign culminates with a presence at the world-renowned trade show Foodex Japan, which is being held in Tokyo between March 7 to 10.

Beneo’s rice ingredients production site in Wijgmaal, Belgium, is changing the long-term working life of more than a hundred small-scale farmers in Laos thanks to the provision of harvesting and threshing machinery. This investment reflects the company’s commitment to its stakeholders throughout the supply chain and has further strengthened  farm-level partnerships. While Beneo retains full ownership of the equipment, the farmers have been trained on how to use and maintain it to ensure the long-standing success of the project. 

Lundberg Family Farms, a grower of organic rice and maker of packaged rice and rice snacks, revealed it is the first US-grown rice brand to introduce Regenerative Organic Certified Rice. As part of its robust sustainability efforts, the company has also set a goal to certify all the organic rice Lundberg grows by 2027.  

Sales of Essential Oats at Waitrose went up 38%, with consumers opting more frequently for healthy whole grains. The hashtag “overnight oats” racked up 1.5 billion uses on TikTok. Searches for the breakfast recipe on Waitrose.com went up 77% compared to the previous year and now consumers are keen to explore how else they can fit oats into their diet. Customers have been enjoying oats in a multitude of ways, with several recipe searches on Waitrose.com showing increases in the past year. Savory continues to be successful, with searches for fish goujons with tartar sauce up 66%. Meanwhile, filled oat cookies have seen an increase of 300% and berry oat and apple muffins are up 250%.Lundberg Family Farms is the first US-grown rice brand to introduce Regenerative Organic Certified Rice.

GrubMarket launched its Sustainable California initiative, a commitment to promote and enhance agricultural sustainability in California by making meaningful investments from a portion of its net profits. The initiative will address the challenges facing California’s agriculture industry today, including water scarcity, soil depletion, environmental preservation challenges and climate change.

Climax Foods, a food tech company, launched its zero-compromise specialty cheese alternatives line. The range of cultured and aged, plant-based cheeses includes Climax Blue, the company’s landmark offering, as well as soon-to-be-launched brie-, feta- and chevre-style, offering the same indulgence as dairy cheese without the environmental impact. Climax Blue is rolling out to US foodservice operators in April and will be available to grocery and specialty retailers later this year. 

In brief: Other highlights
Vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan invested approximately 30% of its turnover back into R&D to develop improved vegetable varieties. The company maintains it is important for the sustainability of the vegetable sector that breeding companies are rewarded for their investments. This encourages innovative efforts to bring new vegetable varieties to the market to benefit growers, retailers and consumers.

By Elizabeth Green