13 November 2024
Nordzucker Plant Based Ingredients: ground-breaking ceremony with Minister Staudte in Groß Munzel
With a valiant grasp of the spade, Miriam Staudte, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in Lower Saxony, together with Claus-Friso Gellermann, Managing Director of Nordzucker Plant Based Ingredients GmbH, and the Nordzucker AG Executive Board, gave the go-ahead for the construction of the future factory. “More and more people are reducing their meat consumption, eating a vegan or vegetarian diet, which means that plant-based foods are gaining market share. This is beneficial for climate protection and allows agricultural diversification. Plant-based proteins are an important business area for the agricultural and food industry. More farms wanted to supply the new plant than could be accepted. This is an impressive signal of the great willingness for transformation in agriculture. I welcome the fact that a long-established company like Nordzucker is investing in the future here in Lower Saxony,” commented Minister Staudte at the groundbreaking ceremony. The future pea protein factory is being built on the site of Nordzucker’s former liquid sugar plant and covers an area of around 8,000 square metres. The site is scheduled for completion and commissioning by mid-2026. Claus-Friso Gellermann, Managing Director of Nordzucker Plant Based Ingredients GmbH, emphasised: “The groundbreaking ceremony for our factory in Groß Munzel is an important milestone for us to produce concentrate and dry texturate from pea proteins for further processing in the food and animal feed industry from 2026. For the first contractually agreed cultivation in 2025, demand from farmers significantly exceeded our requirements – a great response from the farming community.” The yellow pea, as a nitrogen-fixing crop, is well suited to many crop rotations due to its nitrogen-fixing properties for subsequent crops.
“Plant-based nutrition – a megatrend that fits with our expertise”
Plant-based nutrition is playing an increasingly important role and the market is growing strongly. Germany is by far the largest market for plant-based foods in Europe and is further expanding its lead. According to a market study by GFI Europe, the German market for plant-based alternative products also grew by eight per cent in 2023 to a new record of 2.2 billion Euro. “The increasing importance of plant-based nutrition makes it clear that we have identified a promising growth market here that is close to agriculture,” said Lars Gorissen, Chief Executive Officer at Nordzucker, explaining the company’s commitment to the plant-based proteins business. “The investment of more than 100 million Euro in the new business unit of Plant Based Ingredients is an important step into the future for us. With the new pea protein factory and in cooperation with the pea-growing farmers, we are ideally equipped to actively shape this megatrend.”
Strategically favourable location with potential
In addition to a building for receiving and sampling peas, a production building, a day storage area and 16 silos for storing peas are being built for the new pea protein production site. “Groß Munzel is an attractive location with good transport links – we are already familiar with the local infrastructure and feel a connection to the Calenberger Land region. Furthermore, we have good access to the raw material yellow pea from many arable regions in northern Germany. We focus on sustainability and regionality to offer our customers high-quality products,” said Alexander Godow, Chief Operating Officer at Nordzucker and responsible for this business unit. With the construction of the plant for the production of pea protein, Nordzucker is creating 60 new jobs.