The facility will support a new line of soy protein concentrates launching this autumn and comes on the back of five years of growth in demand for plant-proteins.
The global soy protein market reached €8.8bn ($10bn) last year, growing at a CAGR of 7% to €15.8bn ($18.4bn) within the next decade (IMARC Group).
Opening this autumn, Bunge’s €484m ($550m) state-of-the-art facility follows a series of high profile openings from competitors in similar fields, including Beneo’s €50m faba pulse processing investment and Cargill’s Missouri soy facility in 2022.
Biggest challenges in plant-protein
“We’re helping customers address their biggest challenges with plant-proteins, sub-optimal flavour, dull colour and high costs,” says Bunge global marketing director for proteins and emulsifiers, Mark Stavro.
“The state-of-the-art plant-protein facility will deliver ultra-clean tasting, light coloured affordable plant-protein with a low carbon footprint scale.”
Bunge also recently invested €8m ($10m) to enhance its plant protein technical capabilities near its St Louis headquarters, which allowed the business to work more closely with the alternative meat and dairy industries.
New Bunge plant-protein site
Bunge’s new site, based in Morristown, Indiana, will process 4.5m extra bushels of soybean to make soy protein concentrate and textured soy protein concentrate.
Building started early in 2023 and is almost complete, with the site opening this autumn and creating around 70 jobs.
The high-purity portfolio will consist of c70% protein and c17% fiber on a dry basis, as well as being non-GMO and offering ready-to-eat powdered and textured formats.
Target customers include producers in snacking, baked goods meat, meat alternatives or drinks.
