An informative article from IFF’s principal application specialist, mentioning LBG “to achieve a creamier texture” and carob protein as a “multi-functional option on the protein side, useful for providing nutrition and texture”.

UNIPEKTIN Ingredients AG as your supplier and partner feels obliged to keep you informed about critical developments affecting the supply situation so that together we can make informed decisions and find the right solution for you.

Tara shrubs (Caesalpinia spinosa L.) are wild perennials grown for commercial purposes exclusively in Peru. The fruits, the Tara pods, are collected and threshed on the spot, separating the seeds from the husks. The powder produced from the husks is used for leather tanning.

UNIPEKTIN imports the separated endosperm directly from Peru and processes it into Tara gum using purely physical processes. The active chain-like hydrocolloid molecules belong to the Galactomannan group. The EU approved the use of Tara gum in 1996.

Prices for tara seeds, the raw material for Tara gum, have been relatively low for years but suddenly began to rise in early 2020. Prices for Tara gum followed the upward trend accordingly, as a technologically viable alternative to Locust Bean Gum is linked to the LBG price trend. Since then, Tara gum prices have risen steadily and are now at a historic level.

Also, the supply of raw materials has now become scarce, and delivery times are now very long, affected negatively by the Covid lockdown with a curfew in Peru, causing delays in production and supply in Peru.

Some 15 years ago, we have seen already a big price increase for Tara seeds and Tara gum. Then, like today, it was directly connected to an LBG crisis, but this time, the pandemic makes the situation even worse.

Demand for Tara Powder for technical/non-food uses is also significant and has grown enormously over the past decade. Also, there is a growing interest and demand for Tara protein, a by-product with an interesting amino acid profile. This will certainly positively affect cultivation, as farmers today have a great motivation to extend and add new plantations.

Alternatives for LBG, e.g. Tara gum or LBG/Tara gum systems, which we have promoted and recommended strongly in the past two years and in light of the deteriorating market situation, have now become unviable cause Tara gum is scarcely available right now.

However, there are still other options available to the food industry, and also specifically developed, optimized and standardized for dairy applications and particularly for cream cheese, like e.g. the VIDOGUM LS series: VIDOGUM L + neutral flavour guar gum

If you are interested in discussing the current Market Update and our recommendations, please contact us by email at info-unipektin@nexira.com or call us.

UNIPEKTIN Ingredients AG as your supplier and partner feels obliged to inform you about critical developments affecting the supply situation. Together, we can make informed decisions and find the right solution for you.

The problematic and continuously worsening LBG market situation producers and users have faced since the 2017 harvest, motivated us to start 2019 with our regular updates covering the LBG market, supply, and pricing situation. We have since posted 8 market updates between Oct 2019 and October 2020, reporting how the LBG market became more and more irrational and speculative, which, unfortunately, now has culminated in a price crisis, rather than a supply crisis.

The 2020 season harvest that commenced last September was, as expected, on an average level overall. It, however, and expectedly, did not prevent the Carob pods and seed prices, the raw material for LBG, from further increasing significantly, hitting one record high after another.

The major price drivers for LBG are the pod and seed prices and notably, the continuing very strong and further growing demand based on LBG’s specific characteristics and its excellent image as a natural product, which is justified considering the cultivation method and production process.

Pods and seeds are still accessible to LBG manufacturers in sufficient quantities, but now only in smaller lots than usual. Larger contracts, like, e.g. for several 100 metric tons, which were normal, are impossible to secure at present. Existing contracts mostly are fulfilled by the raw material suppliers. Still, there could be significant delays, and there are also reports that LBG producers are sometimes forced to renegotiate in the midst of a valid contract. This may lead to LBG production and delivery delays, the logistical challenges and delays by Covid-19 unconsidered.

Prices for LBG, due to the increasing Carob seed prices, have increased weekly, sometimes even daily, in the past two months. Quotations are now often only valid for 24 hours.

The new season of Carob pod harvest, which usually is available from October each year, is looking very promising so far, so there is hope the market will begin to move in the right direction again. But until then, LBG producers and users will be forced to live with this crisis.

Demand for LBG remains unabated. Alternatives for LBG, e.g. Tara gum or LBG/Tara gum systems, which we have promoted and recommended strongly in the past two years and in light of the deteriorating market situation, have become unviable cause Tara gum is scarcely available right now.

However, there are still other options available to the food industry, and also specifically developed, optimized and standardized for dairy applications and particularly for cream cheese, like e.g. the VIDOGUM LS series: VIDOGUM L + neutral flavour guar gum

If you are interested in discussing the current Market Update and our recommendations, please contact us by email at info-unipektin@nexira.com or call us.

UNIPEKTIN Ingredients AG wishes to be recognized as a company and employer that cares for the environment and the community in which we live and work. We support, recognize and reward innovation, initiative and leadership of people throughout the organisation and in our community. The commitment to support our younger generation in their development and career is of particular concern to us and allows us to give something back to the community.

UNIPEKTIN is proud to announce the sponsoring and support of one of Switzerland’s promising and upcoming sportspersons, Joanna Mazzoleni, a player in the Volleyball NLA (National League A) for the Club Raiffeissen Volley Toggenburg.

In National League A, the best Swiss national teams compete with each other. In the 2020/2021 season, ten teams will duel for the women, and eight for men. The most successful team in both men and women’s at the end of the season will receive the hotly coveted title of Swiss champion.

Their NLA team did it! For the first time in more than 15 years, the team made it to the playoffs for the top 8 teams in Switzerland!

We wish Joanna and her team every success in the fight for the title.

Inspired by the request and suggestions of our distributors, customers and staff we recently added a ‘Sample Request’ tab to the top navigation bar of our website. The tab opens the sample request form, which is submitted by a click on the button directly to our sample despatch team.

Our test run during the past weeks confirmed our hopes that this will make the sampling process more straightforward and with less administrative work required.

Please in future request your samples using this online sample request. It will help you receive the samples faster. We will also email you a tracking link after the parcel has been dispatched.

We also again would like to suggest to subscribe to our newsletters to always be among the first to know what’s new.

While 2020 has certainly been a year of ongoing challenges, there remains plenty to celebrate for UNIPEKTIN Ingredients AG.

Strong demand for our established and new product lines, the constant adjustment of our marketing and communications strategy, our dedicated staff willing to go the extra mile, significant improvements in production technology and capacity, and the commitment of our distribution partners, made 2020 a truly successful year for UPI.

2020 brought yet another significant increase in sales volume, of more than 40% compared to the previous year, with 2019 having been the most successful year in the company history with the turnover more than double compared to 2018.

Ever since Covid-19 came along, travelling to meet and exchange information with suppliers, customers and distributors has become near impossible. This lack of face-to-face exchange is particularly felt when it comes to critical planning and budgeting decisions for products like ours, where raw material planning is crucial. You get it right, you are fine – you get it wrong, you are in trouble.

The Locust Bean Gum market remained strongly volatile throughout 2020, and raw material prices increased further and reached new historical heights. We started to publish regular market updates on LBG on our website to make sure our distributors and customers are fully informed about the developments in our core market. These market updates obviously created confidence in UPI as one of the main LBG producers and helped existing and new customers to make the switch to our LBG and the available alternatives which we had further optimized in anticipation of the market development.

Our VIDOFIBRES range of plant fibres has quickly become one of the main pillars of our business, we added citrus and recently also carrot fibre to our sugar beet, apple and pear fibres. The VIDOFIBRES product family now complements perfectly our VIDOGUM Galactomannan product range of Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum and Tara Gum, the VIDOPECTINE pectin product line, relaunched in 2020, the VIDOGUM PRO carob and tara proteins as well as the VIDOGLACE ice cream stabilizer product line. With these, we offer our customers a wide range of functional solutions for thickening, stabilization, gelling and texture for countless applications in the food industry.

Good information = Good decisions.

Already in 2019, we began to optimize our marketing efforts with the implementation of a new strategy centred around our website www.unipektin.ch and the News blogs as the central information hub and sales support database. Since then, our website has developed into a powerful and particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, indispensable marketing and communication tool for the numerous new product launches we had. A large number of regular and new visitors now use our website. We have also gained a large number of subscribers to our News blogs, many of our distributors and customers alike have subscribed to receive the newsletters and blogs automatically.

In the past 15 months, we have published more than 50 News blogs covering topics like, e.g. LBG market updates, company updates, new presentations, new product launches, updated or latest information etc. about our company, markets, products, services.

We have regularly updated our product information sheets, brochures, presentations etc. and we expanded the number of downloadable product information significantly, making them quickly and directly accessible.

So, while 2020 has brought about unprecedented uncertainty, it is worth acknowledging that challenge and opportunity do tend to go hand-in-hand. And we remain very positive about the opportunities the year ahead presents.

We wish you all a safe and happy 2021.

Management and staff of UNIPEKTIN INGREDIENTS AG would like to thank our customers and distributors for their support and business in 2020.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a safe, happy New Year and look forward to working with you again in 2021.

Our offices will be closed from 3 P.M. on December 18, we will be back on January 04, 2021. In urgent cases, please send an email using this link, and we will get back to you soonest.

Das Management und die Mitarbeiter der UNIPEKTIN INGREDIENTS AG bedanken sich bei unseren Kunden und Distributoren für Ihre Unterstützung, die Zusammenarbeit und das gemeinsame Geschäft im Jahr 2020.

Wir wünschen Ihnen frohe Weihnachten und ein sicheres, glückliches neues Jahr und freuen uns auf die Zusammenarbeit im Jahr 2021.

Unsere Büros sind vom 18.Dezember um 15 Uhr geschlossen. Wir sind wieder für Sie da am 4.Januar 2021. In dringenden Fällen können Sie uns jederzeit per e-mail erreichen, wir melden uns schnellstmöglich bei Ihnen.

UNIPEKTIN Ingredients AG as your supplier and partner feels obliged to keep you informed about critical developments affecting the supply situation so that together we can make informed decisions and find the right solution for you.

The new season harvest has commenced earlier than usual and is now in full swing. Expectations are that it will be on an average level overall, but it is too early for a reliable forecast.

Surprisingly, Carob seed prices have further increased since the new season harvest has begun. In the face of fully utilized factories and very strong demand, overall, however, there is now an expectation that prices will remain high and probably even rise further.

The current major price drivers for LBG are the seed price and particularly the continuing very strong and further growing demand based on LBG’s specific characteristics and its excellent image as a natural product, which is absolutely justified considering the cultivation method and production process.

The price for Tara gum as a technologically viable alternative to locust bean gum has now also noticeably increased and we could see the raw material becoming short. We, therefore cannot any longer and strongly recommend considering a 100% switch to Tara gum as a viable alternative to LBG. However, there are other options available to the food industry, and also specifically developed, optimized and standardized for dairy applications and particularly for cream cheese:

• VIDOGUM LS series: VIDOGUM L + neutral flavour guar gum,
• VIDOGUM LB series: VIDOGUM L + tara gum

A number of our LBG users have in the past 2 years made the switch to alternative recipes based on our locust bean gum VIDOGUM L combined with other gums. UPI has successfully developed and introduced such systems during the past price peaks and optimized them further in expectation of the market development. They can, under the current market conditions, give LBG users a valid technical and commercial option, reducing their dependence on LBG.

If you are interested to discuss the current Market Update and our recommendations, please contact us by email at info-unipektin@nexira.com or call us.

Unipektin Ingredients AG as your supplier and partner feels obliged to keep you informed about critical developments affecting the supply situation so that together we can make informed decisions and find the right solution for you.

Since our last market update from July/August 2020, and with the new season harvest in clear sight, sporadical raw material deals were done at historically high prices, which further heated the LBG market price. This was also proof to the market participants that the stocks of carob seeds were getting pretty low.

The new season harvest has now commenced, earlier than usual, and is hoped to be on an average level overall. Among the major growing countries, Morocco’s harvest is said to be lower than normal, and it remains to be seen if Spain, Portugal and Italy can compensate for this. We hope the total harvested quantity of carob seeds including the other countries reaches last year’s levels, but only time will tell if this is the case?

The current major price drivers for LBG are the seed price as well as the continuing very strong demand based on LBG’s specific characteristics and its very good image as a natural product, which is absolutely justified considering the cultivation method and production process.

Demand for our LBG / VIDOGUM L continues to soar. Our factory has been running at maximum capacity ensuring the availability of VIDOGUM L for our customers globally. Due to high demand, stable supply and very low inventories, prices will remain at a very high level. Right now it is impossible for us to predict the short-term LBG price development. However, if the current new season harvest proves to be lower than expected, further price increases can’t be ruled out.

A number of our LBG users have made the switch to alternative recipes based on VIDOGUM L combined with other gums. UPI has successfully developed and introduced such systems during the past price peaks and optimized them further in expectation of the market development. They can give LBG users a valid technical and commercial option, reducing their dependence on LBG.

• VIDOGUM LS series: LBG + neutral flavour guar gum, specifically developed and standardized for dairy applications.

If you are interested to discuss the current Market Update and our recommendations, please contact us by email at info-unipektin@nexira.com or call us.

Unipektin Ingredients AG as your supplier and partner feels obliged to keep our customers informed about critical developments affecting the supply situation so that together we can make informed decisions and find the right solution for you.

Since our last market update from June 2020, the raw material prices have stabilized at the current and historically high level, while availability remains good. This is paired with a continuing very strong demand for LBG, as Dennis Seisun from IMR International in their latest Hydrocolloid Tidbits correctly states….

….”LBG Resilience: LBG prices are near historical highs but demand remains strong. Partly it is the clean label image and good consumer perception. Partly it is the nearly unique functionality and synergy with other hydrocolloids. Finally, it is a case of inertia and hopeful anticipation of lower prices when the next crop arrives. Reformulation work and label changes are a major hurdle to the replacement of LBG. In the meantime, at nearly a quarter of the price of LBG, tara gum prices remain attractive despite recent increases.“

Demand for our LBG / VIDOGUM L continues to soar. Our factory runs at maximum capacity ensuring the availability of VIDOGUM L.

The new season crop starting in September is expected to be on a normal and average level. The carob seed volume forecast for Morocco is average to slightly below the 2019 level. Spain and Italy are expected to have a slightly better crop, and in Portugal, an average volume is expected. Altogether we expect a similar seed quantity as last year. With the new season seeds becoming available in late September or October, it remains to be seen if there is an immediate and short-term impact on prices in Q4, 2020.

Some LBG users have made the switch to alternative recipes based on VIDOGUM L combined with other gums, while others are still considering this option. UPI has successfully developed and introduced such systems during the past price peaks and optimized them further in expectation of the market development. They can give LBG users a valid technical and commercial option, reducing their dependence on LBG.

• VIDOGUM LS series: LBG + neutral flavour guar gum, specifically developed and standardized for dairy applications.

If you are interested to discuss the current Market Update and our recommendations, please contact us by email at info-unipektin@nexira.com or call us.