PureCircle reaches stevia leaf milestone
PureCircle has reached a major milestone in the global expansion of its supply chain reach. Several recent commercial scale shipments of stevia leaf have marked successful stevia cultivation and sourcing operations for PureCircle in Paraguay, Kenya and the US. PureCircle’s continuous investment and commitment to these regions over the past several years strategically diversifies their supply base as stevia use broadens globally. The commercialisation of stevia in these regions is an important step toward PureCircle’s future model of localising their supply chain to service major markets.
PureCircle’s developments in Kenya, Paraguay and the US add to the company’s global leaf supply. Stevia is native to Paraguay, where PureCircle’s South American subsidiary began commercial scale leaf shipments to PureCircle extraction facilities in early January 2012 and has continued to ship regularly since then. New developments in the region include trials with mechanised harvesting technology to improve harvesting efficiency for farmers and the recycling of stevia biomass into organic fertiliser for stevia fields. PureCircle has partnered with Paraguayan farmers to plant over 36 million seedlings to date.
Kenya has ideal growing conditions for proprietary varieties of PureCircle stevia and PureCircle’s wholly-owned subsidiary operation will serve as a future hub to supply Europe, Middle East and African markets. PureCircle Kenya is also making positive social impacts. PureCircle has invested nearly one million dollars in microfinancing for farmers, and commercial operations now provide employment and steady income to over 2200 independent farmers. In the US, PureCircle is focused on progressing stevia agricultural knowledge and improving processes in mass scale farming techniques for stevia cultivation. PureCircle believes that progressing localised production of stevia will be critical for its wide scale adoption and will improve the environmental footprint of their stevia ingredients.
The long-term development of these regions has accelerated the implementation of PureCircle’s leaf breeding program, in which diverse varieties of stevia are being conventionally bred to best suit the growing regions and improve the quality and yield of steviol glycosides, the sweet components extracted from the stevia leaf. PureCircle asserts that the benefits of its global leaf development strategy also extend to its customers by providing greater diversification and localisation of stevia sourcing.
