Soybean can be versatile food, US lobby stresses
March 18
[Health News] New Delhi, March 18 : Protein rich soybean is set to evolve into juices, roasted snacks and tofu savouries, as against just soy chunks and granules that many children so hate. Behind the soybean taste revolution is the American Soybean Association (ASA), representing the largest group of soybean producers, that is offering technology and innovations to camouflage the “beany” taste in more appealing avatars to grab a bigger share of the Indian market. “The Indian soybean market is currently estimated to be around Rs.50 billion ($1.15 billion) including the solvent (edible oil) industry. India is also importing quite a lot of soybean crude to meet the domestic demand,” said Ricky Thapar, ASA consultant for Asia based here. India is the fifth largest soybean producer with an annual production of 6.8 million tonnes, while the US leads with 70 million tonnes followed by Brazil, Argentina and China. Though in the fourth place, China’s soybean production is more than double that of India at around 16 million tonnes. “In India there is not much awareness about the health and nutritional properties of soybean and as such its use is restricted mainly to soybean oil, flour and nuggets. Now with ASA offering technologies and soy protein isolates new products are coming into the market,” Thapar told IANS. The demand for soy protein isolates or soybean powder with 90-98 percent protein concentrate has led to a 200 percent growth in imports from the US in five years. The main player in this segment is the $1 billion turnover Solae Company, a joint venture of Dupont and Bunge Group, with a presence in 70 countries. In India, Solae imports around 800-900 tonnes of soy protein isolates and supplies varied products – from fruit flavoured soy juices like Healthcare to weight management food supplements major Herbalife. “In the last five year we have had 50 percent annual growth and currently have a turnover of Rs.180 million. While India is more focused on vegetable oil and soymeal as animal feed, we are supplying soy protein isolates to a large number of companies, including multinationals based here,” said Indranil Chatterjee, business manager of Solae Company subsidiary in India. The company has already put up three plants in China to beat Chinese competition in Asian markets while catering to the local market demands. “In India, we will plan a manufacturing set up only if volumes justify it,” said Chatterjee. “At present, we are providing technological help to any Indian company wanting to set up manufacturing plant for producing soybean products.” Besides supplying soy protein isolates in 120 variants in prices ranging from Rs.220-450 per kg bulk prices, the company used the Aahar food trade show here earlier this month to test market its Soy Day granules, chunks and flakes. The technical help being provided by the ASA has seen the emergence of several small and medium scale roasted beans, savouries, snack makers as well as tofu manufacturers targeting supermarkets and malls and slowly penetrating the local stores as tastes develop. Wooing people to make soybean a part of the regular diet, ASA has also tied up with several NGOs in the country to highlight its uses in checking diabetes and growth of cancer. “Studies have shown soybean is specially beneficial in hormones related cancer like prostate and breast cancer. In diabetes also it helps to control blood sugar,” said Suresh Itapu, a nutritionist attached to ASA.
–Indo-Asian News Service
