The agreement covers onion, garlic and other vegetables from the dehydrated vegetables division of US headquartered Sensient Technologies Corporation.
This is the first time Sensient Dehydrates has hooked up with a food industry distributor in the UK, and the company is hoping the arrangement will enable it to grow its share of the market there.
“Sensient Dehydrates does not have a tradition of distribution partnerships for food in the UK. We have worked with IMCD in other markets and have been impressed with their technical expertise and level of service in those areas. For food, Sensient has selected IMCD with the aim of expanding our traditional market coverage in the UK and to benefit from IMCD’s impressive customer base,” explained Peter Nesbitt, commercial director at Sensient Dehydrates for Europe.
He said Sensient chose to partner IMCD because ‘as a dedicated full service provider to the food processing sector, offering ingredients, logistics and most importantly technical services’, IMCD was the ideal partner to enable them to achieve this goal.
In addition, he said: “Their existing premium portfolio is a perfect fit for our expansion ambition.”
David Robinson, business group leader, IMCD, outlined the reasons it has chosen to partner Sensient, saying: “ Sensient’s extensive sourcing expertise offers our customers the stability they require in a historically volatile and challenging product range. This all fits perfectly with our strategy of representing reliable suppliers of highly functional ingredients, technically supporting these products to successful sales and offering the UK and Irish food industry innovative yet cost effective solutions.”
IMCD says it will be providing full technical support and back-up for the Sensient range of dehydrated food ingredients. This includes a technical services department, a food laboratory facility and ingredient advice on concept development work and specific projects for customers.
A global company, Sensient Dehydrates has manufacturing plants around the world. Its product line includes air-dried, freeze dried and puffed specialty vegetables and spices that find applications in soups, sauces, convenience foods and baked goods.
The US represents the largest producer and consumer of dehydrated vegetables globally, according to Olam International, although emerging markets such as China and India are fast playing catch up. According to Chinese Ministry of Agriculture statistics, from January to August 2009, China exported 221.8 thousand tons of dehydrated vegetables, an increase of 24.65% versus the previous reporting period.
The global dehydrated vegetable production industry has faced many challenges over the past decade in the way of untimely and adverse weather events impacting crop yields, crop displacement stemming from ethanol production, and volatile input costs such as fertiliser, natural gas and diesel fuel.