Yeast suppliers to benefit bakers through \'application profiling\'

Tag : bakers yeast
"If advances can be made in promoting efficacy, reliability andquality of specialty yeasts, this will continue to drive expansionin the market," say the analysts.

Prices for molasses, the raw material on which bakers yeast , among others, is dependent, have rocketed by 50 per cent inrecent months on the back of shortages resulting from the EU'sstreamlined sugar regime. In turn, the bullish price hikes havedriven a leading 10 per cent rise in yeast prices, requiringproducers to pass on costs to the market.

Leading yeast supplier Bio Springer , for example, announced double digit price increase for itsextracts from January 2008, explaining that the cost of sugarmolasses has increased by 10 per cent per year for the last threeyears.

While the on-going reform to the sugar regime in Europe and theparallel imposition of quotas on sugar producers is key to thesurge in prices for molasses, the price equation for yeastproducers has also been impacted by the biofuel sector. A growingindustry, biofuels compete directly with the yeast market for thesame raw material, but not on a level playing field.

Biofuel producers can pay farmers 'twice the price that yeastmakers can afford', a factor that has 'greatly aggravated pricepressures' in the European yeast market, writes Frost &Sullivan analyst Natasha Telles.

In addition, bioethanol producers can slice into subsidiescurrently offered from governments eager to encourage growth forthis fuel alternative.

But a new sector is emerging out of the core commoditised Europeanyeast market, worth €353m in 2007, that will help yeastplayers fight back to maintain revenues: the nascent area ofspeciality yeast products that cater for value-added and premiumapplications, notably health and wellness products.

Seen as rewarding investment opportunities in "an otherwise commoditised European yeast market", leading yeast companies are currently applying modern science tothe traditional process of fermentation to develop a sector "thatcan benefit from wider profit margins and a value-added premiumimage", adds the Frost & Sullivan analyst.

Specific opportunities for the flourishing area of specialityyeasts lie, notably, in the demand from food makers for ingredientsthat tick the clean label box. Mounting consumer demand for naturalingredients has created considerable scope for yeast and yeastextract makers.

"Yeast and yeast extract manufacturers must capitalise on thisdemand by providing customer centric products," attests Frost & Sullivan.

According to the researcher, 'application profiling is the new buzzword' that sees formulations customised for use in particularapplications. Such profiling is predicted to be one of thehighlights in the success of this market, adds the analyst.

Further, Natasha Telles claims that by developing into newapplication sectors, "the credibility of this industry and itsviability will increase two-fold."

"Most of the global manufacturers are looking into developingcustomer specific solutions as an opportunity to expand theirproduct and business portfolio, by introducing a range of newerapplications for existing products," she adds.

For instance, the British yeast extract manufacturing companySynergy introduced Saporesse Plus in 2008, using yeast extracts innon-dairy applications such as confectionery.

With regards to image and profile, the market analysts suggest thatindustry associations such as the Comite des fabricants de levurede panification de union Europeenne (COFALEC), and the EuropeanAssociation of Specialty Yeast Products (EURASYP), will play a keyrole in raising awareness of yeasts' nutritive profile andtherefore contribute to growth for a market 'in a dynamic stage ofgrowth'.

According to the European Association for Specialty yeast producers(EURASYP), specialty yeast products include all products derivedfrom inactivated, plasmolysed, autolysed or hydrolysed food yeasts.These extracts and compounds can be promoted for either theirnutritional or flavouring profiles in the sector of food andagriculture.

Products that fall into this emerging category include: food &feed yeasts; autolysed yeasts; high nucleotide yeasts; yeastextracts; yeast cell walls; and yeast beta-glucans.