EID Parry to develop natural food colours to cater wellness market

Murugappa Group’s EID Parry is working on developing natural food colours as part of strengthening its presence in the wellness space. It has mapped out plans to reduce the dependence on sugar by extending the core business to ethanol, biofuels, power and differentiated products.

The business is focusing on moving up the value chain by offering value added and more consumer appealing products from microalgae ingredients — Spirulina and Chlorella, said the company.

It is working on various projects for developing natural food colours such as Phycocyanin, one of the major pigment constituents and Chlorophyll from Spirulina. Also, red colour from Lycopene, which is found in fruits to address the emerging requirement from consumers for natural food colours.

The developments are in line with its future strategies and to de-risk the business. They plan to reduce the dependence on sugar by extending the business in less cyclical areas such as ethanol, bio fuels, power and differentiated products. Sugar business is cyclical, heavily dependent on unpredictable weather patterns, macroeconomic trends and volatile market prices. Last year sugar industry across the globe was pushed to a record low in prices, the company said.

It claims that it is the only company in the world, with the capability to produce all the three algae based dietary supplements — Spirulina, Chlorella and Astaxanthin. It has also launched Organic Chlorella, a dietary supplement which aids in detoxification, tissue regeneration and healthy ageing.

The turnover from nutraceuticals division was Rs 71.64 crore for the year ended March 31, 2016, representing three per cent of the Company's revenue, as compared to Rs 74 crore from the previous year. About 86 per cent of these are from exports.

It has initiated action to improve Spirulina sales by focusing on multi-level marketing customers in Asia. While Western Europe and North America remain its key markets, the coming years will see rapid expansion in the Asia Pacific and Indian sub-continent regions, the company added.