“Baking is the Latin American region’s main market and, while Mexico, Colombia and Peru are significant, Brazil's physical size makes a huge difference. There’s lots of positive momentum, driven by economic rebounds, which means Brazilians are spending more,” Arnaud Melin told FoodNavigator-LATAM.
“Artisanal bread solutions is a high-level trend with frozen/partially baked (par baking) making up 85% of the market in volume. We’ve adapted the offering we deliver – the Novamyl enzyme that helps with softness, crust color and also freshness – which leads to continued improvement. And, we train our ‘bread improvers’, so they too can improve.”
Other baking solutions include the 2017 launch of the Sensea Wrap, a Mexico-specific product created with flour tortillas in mind that keeps wraps flexible for longer. Melin added: “Texture is very important to this product, which we launched a year ago. The tortilla market is growing worldwide and Sensea Wrap is doing well in Mexico.”
Opportunities in beverages and protein
Beverage industry customers in the region are also demonstrating interest as they seek to manage raw material fluctuations. “Given the success we have seen in other areas for Ondea Pro, we are currently assessing the technology for Brazil and other Latin American countries. It is used in beer, a core market, to manage changes in malt quality, impart consistency and help with fermentation; we’re at looking at Latin America as a whole,” he said, adding that both the wine and juice sectors are showing interest in Novozymes’ fermentation-enhancing enzymes.
Besides food and beverages, the continent’s southern cone is seeing renewed interest in dietary supplements. “One traditional area we work in is animal protein, helping customers to get more value out of proteins by extracting raw materials for dietary supplements. Customers in Argentina, Chile and Brazil are looking to maximize proteins and produce dietary supplements,” he added.
And, in the vegetable oils sector, following the success of Quara in North America, which reportedly improves the oil yield from soybeans, Novozymes is looking to roll out this brand-new enzyme technology later this year, which fully degums vegetable oils, in Argentina and Brazil. Melin said: “We’re working with regulatory authorities in these countries to obtain approval Quara; based on what we’re seeing, there’s high demand for this type of enzyme.”
