Big deal for unfinished plant

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This article was published 15/01/2020 (1560 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Southern Manitoba is poised to become a critical global supplier of pea protein for the rapidly growing meat alternatives market with a rare multi-year pea protein supply agreement announced this week between California-based Beyond Meat and Roquette.

When Roquette opens its $400-million pea protein plant in Portage la Prairie this November, it will be the largest pea protein supplier in the world and the only supplier with production capacity on two continents.

With various industry forecasts saying that plant-based protein will take between three and 10 per cent of the global meat market over the next 10 years — worth up to $100 billion from a modest $4.5 billion today — it is a huge opportunity.

Roquette has been supplying Beyond Meat for about 10 years from its plant in France. Beyond Meat has said the new agreement with Roquette will significantly increase the amount of pea protein to be supplied by Roquette to Beyond Meat over the next three years as compared to the amount supplied in 2019.

In a telephone interview from the company headquarters in France, Jean-Philippe Azoulay, Roquette’s vice-president for pea and new proteins, said it is a very exciting time for the company.

Azoulay, who only joined the company six months ago, said the Portage plant will roughly double Roquette’s pea protein capacity.

“Roquette is visionary,” Azoulay said in reference to the company’s anticipation of the market potential and demand for pea and other plant-based proteins.

“Roquette understood before everyone else,” Azoulay said. “This is why the company is finding itself in a leadership position — from an historical perspective, skills and expertise and reputation perspective… we are leaders in the world and have been for 10 years. The challenge is to strengthen that leadership. It is still not a very big market yet… but it is growing very fast.”

In a prepared statement, Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat’s founder & CEO, said, “This latest contract with Roquette reflects Beyond Meat’s commitment to further scaling the plant protein supply chain as global demand for our products continues to rise. Along with our supply chain partners, including Roquette, we are driving innovation and access to existing and new plant protein feedstocks.”

Beyond Meat went public in May. Its shares were up more than 700 per cent by July, causing a huge sensation and raising the awareness of meat alternatives everywhere.

Merit Functional Foods already has another pea and canola protein plant under construction in Manitoba and with demand for plant-based protein alternatives increasing by double digits annually across many sectors — meat, dairy, beverages, and bakery — the anticipation is that  even more production capacity from the plant protein producers will be required.

Azoulay said Roquette is looking at other investment opportunities to keep up with demand.

In Manitoba, the demand is creating a distinct opportunity for capital investment and job creation — Roquette’s plant will need about 150 people when it is up and running.

Dave Shambrock, executive director of Food & Beverage Manitoba, the food processing industry association, said everyone is trying to gauge just how solid the demand is and whether it will last.

“The growth is catching everyone a little by surprise and everyone is trying to readjust,” he said. “What is the new equilibrium? What is the market really going to do?”

Azoulay said Roquette believes the trend is solid and that there is a transformation taking place around the world in the way people eat.

“We have a duty to help this transformation to a new way of cooking and eating and producing food,” he said. “We have a responsibility as market leaders to help those segments grow and to supply quality product and make it possible for consumers to choose.”

With the expectation of about 150,000 tonnes of yellow peas to be processed annually at the plant, there is plenty of capacity available from Western Canadian pea producers.

There is about four million tonnes of yellow peas grown in Canada annually and most of it is exported as raw commodity to international markets.

Julianne Curran, the vice-president for market innovation at Pulse Canada, said China is currently one of the biggest markets for Canadian production.

“Pea protein ingredients in food applications has been a relatively small component compared to other major sources of plant protein like soy,” she said. “It is really exciting that some big brands that have significant volume potential in the food industry are using pea protein.”

Right now the major categories where plant based proteins are used are in meat alternatives, processed meat and milk alternatives.

“A lot of that is from other protein besides peas,” she said. “Right now the most significant category for pea protein is in milk alternative. Seeing increased use in other categories like meat analogs and bakery is really exciting.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca