Kerry has signed a partnership with Unigrain to support the creation of more high quality sustainable alternative dairy products, and enhance market growth for the plant-based category in Asia Pacific.
The collaboration will offer food and beverage brands and manufacturers access to a unique combination of ingredients, R&D and processing solutions to craft delicious and nutritious oat milk and other applications using quality Australian-grown oats.
The agreement will see Kerry support on technology development, applications and enzymes, flavours, maskers and nutrition, and is a step towards the creation of a unique dairy alternative expertise ecosystem, where other ingredients and processing partners are invited be part of the collective to accelerate the move towards sustainable nutrition solutions.
Both companies will recommend the other party’s solutions to their customers, with the goal of offering the best solutions for oat-based applications. Kerry and Unigrain will also co-create a range of applications to showcase to customers across Asia Pacific.
Kerry Australia & New Zealand MD Christine Giuliano said Asia Pacific’s dairy alternative industry was estimated at more than 5 billion USD, with an expected 16.3 per cent CAGR to reach 12 billion USD by 2028.
“As our current supplier of oat flour, Unigrain is now our partner to drive an ambitious plant-based growth plan in keeping with Asia Pacific’s fast-growing dairy alternative industry.
“Combining our end-to-end capabilities with Unigrain’s unique oat expertise and production infrastructure, we are excited to be the force for change in the next phase of growth in the dairy alternative space,” said Giuliano.
Unigrain co-CEO Fiona May, said the collaboration and investment in advanced oat milk and oat ingredient production would help drive multiple benefits to the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa markets.
“We are proud to be partnering Kerry to help drive awareness, thought leadership and category growth in the dairy alternative sector. In Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region, oat milk has overtaken almond as the #2 dairy alternative among new product development in the region.
“With our combined expertise, we provide an incredibly strong offering that can deliver highly optimised solutions and enable the development and manufacture of high quality sustainable functional ingredients, bringing significant value to customers,” said May.
