Merck scales lipids supply to meet COVID demand

IN BRIEF

INDONESIA: US agribusiness giant Cargill announced on 3 June that it is planning to build a new US$200M palm oil refinery in Lampung, due for completion late next year.

“This project is a key step to increase the availability of sustainably sourced and produced edible oil ingredients for our customers,” said Cargill’s Asia Pacific president Robert Aspell.

Cargill entered the Indonesian market in 1974 with the establishment of a feed mill in Bogor, West Java, the company said.

EUROPE: Leading oilseed processing company Bunge announced a lecithin distribution agreement with IMCD's food and nutrition division on 3 June.

The deal between Bunge Loders Croklaan (BLC) and the speciality chemicals and ingredients distributor allows IMCD to distribute BLC's complete BungeMaxx lecithin portfolio in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

The BungeMaxx lecithin portfolio comprised plant-based lecithin made from soya, rapeseed and sunflower seeds in fluid, deoiled, and fraction forms, including organic sunflower and soya options. It was suitable for a range of applications including chocolate confectionery, bakery, nutritional supplements and infant nutrition, Bunge said.

EU rejects new rules for plant-based dairy sector

The EU has rejected draft legislation which would have imposed new restrictions on descriptions and packaging used by the plant-based dairy sector, FoodBev reported on 26 May.

Current European laws already ban the use of dairy terms for non-dairy products, such as ‘soya milk’ or ‘vegan cheese’.

However, Amendment 171 (AM171) would have had further implications for the alternative dairy sector, banning descriptions such as 'creamy' or 'buttery', FoodBev wrote.

Images of plant-based foods that could be judged to be ‘evoking’ or ‘imitating’ dairy, would also have been banned, along with packaging formats such as milk cartons or butter blocks and comparisons such as “half the carbon emissions of dairy butter”, the report said.

Last year, the European Parliament had voted to reject a ban on plant-based products using names typically associated with meat products, but had voted in favour of a plant-based dairy ban, FoodBev wrote.

AM171 had now been dropped by the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission, FoodBev said.

The amendment had followed objections from NGOs, food companies such as Nestlé, climate change activist Greta Thunberg and other organisations, the report added.

Meanwhile, the European Dairy Association said that the decision to uphold existing restrictions on the use of terms such as “vegan cheese” in the Common Agricultural Policy would continue to protect dairy industry products.

UK imports of Spanish olive oil fall post Brexit

Photo: Adobe Stock

The UK is Spain's fifth largest olive oil export market

Spain’s olive oil exports to the UK dropped 35% in the first two months of this year compared to the same period last year, Olive Oil Times reported the country’s Union of Farmers and Livestock Unions as saying on 10 May.

The UK imported about US$167M of Spanish olive oil in 2020, making it Spain’s fifth largest export market.

The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which had been provisionally operational since 1 January when Brexit came into effect, was fully ratified in April, Olive Oil Times wrote.

According to figures released by the UK’s Office of National Statistics in March, imports from the EU had fallen by 28% in the first two months of the year as additional checks and bureaucratic hurdles had impeded the free flow of products.

Total Spanish agri-food exports had fallen by 4.9% during the period, with sales of oils and fats being hit particularly hard, including the 35% drop in olive oil shipments, Olive Oil Times said.

The Union of Farmers and Livestock Unions said a new requirement for phytosanitary certificates and border checks would also lead to a further slowdown of shipments and add to the cost and bureaucracy of post-Brexit trading.

CME permanently closes most physical trading pits

The physical trading pits of global derivatives and commodities exchange CME Group that have been closed since last year due to COVID-19 will not reopen, the company announced on 4 May.

However, CME said its Eurodollar options pit, which reopened in August, would remain open, allowing trade in both open outcry and electronic systems.

Open outcry was popular in trading pits in the past, according to Investopedia. The verbal and hand signal communication used by traders at stock, option and futures exchanges are now rarely used, replaced by faster, more accurate electronic systems.

Open outcry on benchmark Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soyabean futures ended in 2015, according to Successful Farming, after it first began in 1936.

The CBOT was set up in 1848 and was one of the world’s oldest futures and options exchanges. It merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in 2007 to form the CME Group.

IN BRIEF

MALAYSIA: The implementation of the B20 biodiesel programme in Sabah and Peninsula Malaysia has been postponed again for an indefinite period, The Edge Markets reported on 2 June.

The mandate to manufacture biofuel with a 20% palm oil component – known as B20 – for the transport sector was rolled out in January 2020 and had been set to be fully implemented across the country by mid-June 2021.

However, plans to step up the programme had been delayed last April due to curbs on movement imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest decision was due to the rise in COVID-19 cases as well as the nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO), the report quoted sources as saying, who said B20 implementation was still ongoing in Langkawi, Labuan and Sarawak without any changes.

THE NETHERLANDS: Finnish renewable fuels producer Neste announced on 29 April that it is modifying its production capacity in Rotterdam to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The refinery currently produced mainly renewable diesel but would be able to produce up to 500,000 tonnes/year of SAF following the modification, scheduled for completion in the second half of 2023.

Neste said its current SAF production capacity was 100,000 tonnes/year but would increase to 1.5M tonnes/year by the end of 2023 following the Rotterdam investment and ongoing expansion of its Singapore refinery. The company was also waiting for a final investment decision on its plan for a new renewable products refinery project in Rotterdam towards the end of this year or early 2022.

WTO agrees panel on EU palm-based biofuels ban

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has agreed to set up an expert panel to review complaints surrounding the European Union (EU)’s decision to ban palm oil-based biofuels, AgriCensus reported on 1 June.

The move had initially been delayed as the EU had blocked complaints from Malaysia but, under WTO rules, any request to investigate trade restraints could only be turned down once.

Palm oil remained a competitive feedstock in some EU countries but several – such as Germany, Belgium and Austria – had moved to ban palm oil in biodiesel ahead of the EU’s mandated 2030 phase-out date, AgriCensus wrote.

Malaysia had first requested a WTO arbitration panel in January claiming that the EU, and in particular France and Lithuania, had imposed restrictive measures on the use of palm oil in violation of international trade agreements.

The EU had blocked this initial demand for the formation of a panel, claiming that its curbs on palm oil were environmental laws permitted under trade rules, AgriCensus said.

The EU’s Delegated Regulation 2019/807 defines palm oil as a high risk indirect land use change (ILUC) biofuel feedstock, which must be capped at 2019 levels until 2023 and then phased out by 2030.

Malaysian palm oil-based biodiesel exports to Europe had dropped substantially this year, to around half the total shipped at this stage last year, according to AgriCensus (see story below).

IAG commits to 10% SAF target by 2030

Multinational airline company International Airlines Group (IAG) has made a commitment to fly 10% of its fleet with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2030.

The group said on 22 April that it would purchase 1M tonnes/year of SAF in a bid to cut its annual emissions by 2M tonnes by 2030.

“It’s clearly challenging to transition to a low carbon business model but, despite the current pandemic, we remain resolute in our climate commitments,” IAG chief executive Luis Gallego said.

IAG is investing US$400M in the development of SAF in the next 20 years. The group is partnering with SAF developers, LanzaJet and Velocys. Plans also include a household waste-to-jet fuel plant in the UK, due to start operations in 2025.

IAG is the parent company of British Airways (BA) and the group said BA would also be using

IAG, which has committed to the use of 10% SAF by 2030, is the parent company of British Airways

SAF from LanzaJet’s US plant to fuel some of its flights from late 2022.

EU palm biodiesel imports fall sharply

Biodiesel shipments from Indonesia to the EU fell by 83% in 2020 compared to 2019 to total 138,000 tonnes, Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants reported from Eurostat/AMI data.

Indonesia accounted for just over one-fifth of all EU biodiesel imports in 2019 but the share dropped to only 4% in 2020.

At 476,000 tonnes in 2020, biodiesel shipments from Malaysia also fell about 43%.

The fall in Indonesian and Malaysian imports was partially offset by other countries such as China, which delivered more biodiesel in 2020 than Indonesia and Malaysia combined.

In the 2020 calendar year, the EU imported a total of 3.1M tonnes of biodiesel from non-EU countries – a 16% year-on-year drop and down 13% compared to 2018, according to the report. The lower imports were due to a decline in biodiesel consumption, which had fallen from 12.5M tonnes in 2019 to 11.4M tonnes in 2020.

Argentina accounted for almost half of EU biodiesel imports (1.65M tonnes) two years ago but its share dropped to just less than one third (895,000 tonnes) in 2020.

Meanwhile, the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) increased from 2.6M tonnes to 3.6M tonnes.

RENEWABLE NEWS California effectively bans CBD in cosmetics

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has amended an agency frequently asked questions (FAQ) document which effectively bans hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) in cosmetics, happi reported on 19 May.

In the move, the CDPH had noted that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considered the cannabidiol compound (CBD) an unapproved additive, which was also unapproved in dietary supplements and pet food, the report said.

California’s Sherman Food and Drug Law stipulated that any food – including beverages and pet food – was adulterated if it contained an unapproved food additive, and that a cosmetic (including lotions and salves) was adulterated if it contained any poisonous or deleterious substance that could cause injury to users under the conditions of use in its labelling or advertising, or under normal conditions of use, happi wrote.

CBD-derived from hemp or any other source was currently not allowed in any of the items regulated by the FDA, including foods, drugs and cosmetics, according to the report.

The CDPH noted that the FDA was in the process of determining whether commodities such as food, cosmetics and dietary supplements could safely contain CBD, happi wrote.

However, the FDA had not currently approved the use of CBD in any of these products, the report said.

The use of CBD for medicinal, personal care and food applications has been growing in recent years.

IN BRIEF

USA: German chemical firm BASF announced on 1 June that it had concluded the sale of its Illinois manufacturing site of vegetable oil-based raw material sterols and natural vitamin E, anionic surfactants and esters.

Financial details of the sale of the Kankakee site to an affiliate of US private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners were not disclosed.

BASF acquired the Kankakee site and its businesses from Cognis in 2010.

Following the sale, a new standalone company, named Kensing, had been formed, BASF said.

BASF said it had retained its sterol ester food ingredient business in Illertissen, Germany, and would continue to focus on creating food ingredients and formulations.

USA: Coconut water brand Vita Coco has launched a new haircare range featuring products containing coconut oil and water. Vita Coco said coconut water was a key ingredient in its Nourish range of shampoos and conditioners, while the conditioner and serum in its Repair range contained coconut oil.

Established in 2005, Vita Coco said it started sourcing its coconuts from one farm in Brazil, but now worked with farmers in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Renewable isododecane in cosmetics

French green technology company Global Bioenergies announced on 4 May that it had launched a range of long-lasting cosmetics based on renewable isododecane.

The firm has developed a process to convert plant-based feedstocks – including cane or beet sugar, starch or second generation farming and forestry waste – into isobutene, which was then converted into isododecane in several stages.

It was now working on five collaborative projects, co-funded by the EU, to produce renewable isobutene, mainly from wheat straw, wood residue and industrial waste.

Isododecane was the main ingredient in its comestics range, comprising 25-50% of formulations, the company said. “It is essential to give

Global Bioenergies’ long-lasting cosmetics range includes eye shadow the product the properties required for long wear,” Global Bioenergies CEO Marc Delcourt said.

The 18 products in the LAST range of cosmetics, which includes mascaras, eyebrow mascaras and eye shadows, was set to be launched in June, with expansion plans to include long-lasting lipstick later in the year.

Holiferm plans biosurfactant plant in 2022

UK biotech start-up Holiferm is planning to open its first commercial biosurfactant plant next year, the company announced on 6 May.

Holiferm produces biosurfactants from renewable feedstocks, which are available in high and low foaming versions.

The company’s sophorolipid production process is based on natural yeast fermentation, using vegetable oil and glucose as raw materials, according to its website.

Holiferm said its aim was to develop and supply sustainable, non-fossil based, fermentation-derived ingredients for industrial and consumer products.

Made using yeast from a Canadian honey bee hive, Holiferm said its sophorolipid had been shown to be an effective and biodegradable non-toxic surfactant.

In April, Holiferm successfully completed the installation and first run of its pilot bioreactor in Daresbury, which produced hundreds of kilograms of sophorolipid product.

The 25 tonnes/year pilot sophorolipid plant meant it could now provide product for its smaller commercial partners while giving samples to its larger partners to test in their own pilot facilities, the company said.

Holiferm said it was currently fundraising for its planned commercial 1,000 tonnes/year production facility, which would provide its larger commercial partners with sufficient quantities of sophorolipids for their product formulations.