Moreover, pectin has enjoyed widespread worldwide consumer acceptance as a nature-based hydrocolloid ingredient. That’s because it is extracted from fruits such as lemons, limes and oranges, and also the vegetable sugar beet.

During the past few years, the pectin industry has faced critical challenges related to raw material supply shortages and production capacity limitations. This has been driven by a poor harvests of lemons and limes in Latin America (2014/15 season) and higher than normal growth rates worldwide in key emerging markets.

CP Kelco, the world’s leading producer of pectin with large manufacturing facilities in Brazil, Denmark and Germany, has taken bold mitigation actions since 2014 to ensure the sustainability of our GENU® Pectin range of products. Likewise, the company is determined to avoid any future supply challenges.

CP Kelco’s significant investments in the GENU Pectin platform—addressing both raw material supply and production capacity—demonstrate a clear commitment to serving customers and the growing application segments for pectin over the long term.

Strategic Investments in Citrus Peel Processing/Operations

CP Kelco has uniquely invested in a partially backward integration approach for its business model.

This was an important move to offset the global shortfall in lemon and lime peel supply for pectin production in recent years, as well as the potential for future lemon and lime shortages due to various factors (i.e., structural challenges for the peel producing industry; supply concentration from limited Latin American countries; volatility in weather conditions).

Upon our development of an innovative and patented peel extraction technology using abundant orange peel, CP Kelco has constructed a state-of-the-art peel processing plant in Brazil, leveraging the new technology to secure sustainable peel and, consequently, pectin supplies for the future.

The new peel processing plant is currently in full operation. With this strategic investment in pectin raw material operations, CP Kelco … 

… reduces dependency on peel from any single geographic area, to the extent we can withstand disruptions due to natural or man‐made calamities without any disturbance in pectin supply.

… enhances the pool of high quality, dried peel available to all of CP Kelco’s pectin production units worldwide.

… reduces CP Kelco’s exposure to peel availability and price fluctuations.

… is well positioned to further enable pectin capacity growth.

In addition, our new peel processing plant has been built with new standards for sustainability:

• Water consumption significantly reduced versus conventional process.

• Reduced energy consumption and utilization of green energy (bio mass and hydro power); almost CO2 neutral.

• Effluents/wastewater significantly reduced.

Beyond our key investment in peel processing operations, CP Kelco will continue to be a significant player in the lemon and lime peel market.

Strategic Investments in Pectin Production Capacity

A strategic imperative of CP Kelco has been to invest in pectin production capacity ahead of market demand.

Since 2014, CP Kelco has invested in numerous capacity expansions to continue ensuring our ability to respond to growth in demand globally.

• Expansion of pectin capacity completed in Denmark – 2014

• Significant capacity expansion of our pectin facility in Brazil completed – 2015

• Debottlenecking projects in Denmark and Germany, leading to additional capacity – 2017

• Projects for future additional pectin capacity expansions well advanced.

These significant investments demonstrate CP Kelco’s commitment to long-term, sustainable pectin supply and to supporting our customers’ new product launches and growth.

Innovating with Pectin to Meet Consumers’ Expectations

Consumers’ increased interest in sugar reduction, fat reduction and protein intake and food labels has driven their growing preference for “natural” and “clean label” ingredients and healthier, more nutritious options for consumption. 

Pectin is positioned strongly in the context of these current trends due to its positive image as one of the most consumer-friendly hydrocolloids available in the market. By combining this positive positioning with pectin’s versatility and functionality as a highly effective stabilizer and texturizer in many foods and beverages seeing increasing demand, it’s clear that innovating with pectin will continue to deliver value and enable manufacturers to meet consumers’ evolving expectations.

CP Kelco looks forward to continuing collaboration with our customers to explore future innovations and growth opportunities with GENU Pectin, now and into the future.

Visit https://www.cpkelco.com/ for more information.