Company: Bunge North America

Website: www.bungenorthamerica.com

Ingredient Snapshot: Bunge North America, the North American operating arm of Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), announced that it is now offering Certified Transitional dry milled corn ingredients, a step designed to help meet the growing demand for organic products. Customers can learn more about these products at Bunge’s booth (N2136) at the annual Natural Products Expo West 2018 in Anaheim, California March 8-11, 2018.

According to Nielsen, organic corn-based foods and meat is approximately a $2 billion retail market with over 10% annual growth for the past three years. In addition, Certified Transitional product retail dollars sales have grown 5-fold over the past year versus the prior year.

While farmers are interested in serving the growing organic market, many don’t participate because the process to achieve organic certification takes three years and can be cost prohibitive. During this period, they have not been able to capture the premium for selling organically farmed corn.

“The Certified Transitional market gives farmers an opportunity to sell this corn at a premium to conventional during their shift to certified organic, incentivizing them to make the move into organic farming,” said Gregg Christensen, vice president, sales, Bunge Milling.  “Bunge is taking the lead in corn by connecting farmers with food manufacturers who are interested in Certified Transitional products as a way of building a more scalable and reliable future supply of organic products.”

All of Bunge’s Certified Transitional corn ingredients are made from U.S. grown transitional corn certified by Quality Assurance International (QAI), a USDA-accredited organic certification body known for its strong association with organic food. This product offering adds to its USDA Certified Organic corn, corn masa, rice, and soybean oil; as well as its Non-GMO Project Verified corn, stone ground ancient grains, rice, sunflower, canola, and soybean oils.

“Bunge is a leader at providing more of the on-trend ingredients that consumers want—including ancient grains, organic and non-GMO corn, and a range of gluten-free grains, as well as organic, non-GMO and expeller-pressed oils—in scalable and reliable formats food manufacturers need,” said Mark Stavro, senior director, marketing, Bunge North America. “Thanks to our robust supply chain and long-standing network of farmers—including those progressing to certified organic—Bunge is uniquely positioned to provide a reliable supply of Certified Transitional corn ingredients to compliment the rest of our USDA Certified Organic and Non-GMO Project Verified grains and oils portfolio.”