Middle East’s 1st plant-based water bottle, biofoams made from seafood waste, mushrooms, bamboo diapers, biobowls, and more: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of March 12th

#6 Corbion to build new PLA plant, exit FDCA

In the Netherlands, food ingredients and biobased products major Corbion disclosed its 2020-2025 strategy, which includes increasing investments in natural food preservation and lactic acid and reducing the breadth of its portfolio.

Olivier Rigaud, CEO of Corbion, says the strategy builds on Corbion’s “solid” foundation. “In food, Corbion has developed increasingly from an ingredients business into a solutions business. We plan to expand on this solutions model with natural food preservation and functional systems as our core capabilities, enabling us to accelerate growth in close adjacencies.”

In lactic acid, the company will work to capitalize on market and technology leadership. “[W]e have decided to build a new lactic acid plant at the existing Corbion site in Rayong Province in Thailand,” Rigaud adds. “As PLA [polylactic acid] is developing better than expected, the urgency behind expanding our lactic acid production capacity has only increased.” The company also aims to make its early-stage omega-3 DHA business profitable by 2022.

The company has also identified 17% of its sales as “non-core.” Such businesses include frozen dough and its development work on 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid. The company is evaluating exit scenarios for these units.
More on the story, here.