Tate & Lyle PLC – a leading global provider of food ingredients and solutions – has entered into an agreement to acquire a 15-per-cent equity holding in Sweet Green Fields, one of the world’s largest privately-held, fully-integrated stevia ingredient companies.

 

Leveraging on the strong predicted growth in demand for stevia products in the years ahead, the latest move builds on the agreement entered into by Tate & Lyle and Sweet Green Fields back in April 2017 that saw Tate & Lyle become the exclusive global distributor of Sweet Green Fields’ portfolio of stevia-based ingredients.

 

A sweet deal

 

“We are delighted to build an even closer partnership with Sweet Green Fields,” remarked Nick Hampton, Tate & Lyle’s CEO. “Their industry-leading portfolio of stevia-based ingredients is highly complementary to our portfolio of proprietary sugar reduction solutions, and the results from the first year of our global distribution partnership have been very encouraging. We look forward to working together with the Sweet Green Fields team to deliver truly breakthrough, great tasting stevia products for our customers.”

 

Joan Braca, President, Food & Beverage Solutions at Tate & Lyle, added: “Our customers around the world are looking for great tasting, nutritionally balanced, and sustainable food products. Our growing partnership with Sweet Green Fields will, through collaborative innovation and the diversification of our supply chain, help us meet those needs and make stevia sweeteners an integral part of our sweetener portfolio.”

 

Jingang (Jack) Shi, Chairman of Sweet Green Fields said that his firm continued to grow its business strongly, driven by its leading portfolio of stevia-based ingredients and solutions.  “We are delighted to have the opportunity to strengthen our relationship with Tate & Lyle, and take our business to the next level of success,” he remarked. 

 

Robust growth for sugar replacers

 

With the increasing per capita consumption of sugar replacers in North America as well as Asian economies, and new sugar taxes being implemented around the world, the growing demand for stevia is expected to enhance the market’s expansion in the near future.

 

According to research firm Markets & Markets, the stevia market was valued at an estimated US$490.1m in last year, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.5 percent from 2017 up to 2022.