Stevia.

In Paraguay, it is called the   ka'a he'e, "sweet grass" in Guarani. But it's like   Stevia rebaudiana   This plant of the sunflower family and chicory has become one of the crops with the greatest potential for expansion in the world. A sweetening power equivalent to 300 times that of sugar, extracts have entered this Asteracea l increasingly market played high intensity sweeteners.

In 2013, Coca-Cola in Argentina and Chile launched its line Life sweetened with stevia. Jams, chocolates and yogurts are among the products using plant extracts as flavoring. In 2010 they came to market products containing stevia 531; in 2014, that figure had grown by 480%, according to research firm Mintel.

"You can say that stevia is already a commonly used product," said Olivier Kutz, senior director of marketing of Tereos. "There are even television ads promoting products that use stevia".Although only represents about 2% of the global market for sweeteners, according to Euromonitor, the consumption of the plant worldwide grew from 35 tonnes in 2008 to 916 by 2013, an increase of 16% per year on average.

And the expectations are even higher. "We hope that stevia continues to grow between 10% and 20% a year at least," says William Mitchell, president of the International Stevia Council, an employers' industry based in Brussels. "But we are still very small. The market for sweeteners worth 70,000 million, of which 60,000 are sugar. We alone are worth 200 million. "

To Kutz, the true potential of stevia is not calorie products. "So far it had products with sugar and sugarless" he explains. "We are seeing how it is growing a new market: products for the consumer, are a treat, but at the same time are healthy enough for the whole family can consume daily. Stevia blends very well with sugar, and is perfect for that role. "

The expansion of the market makes producers the look and the wish to meet demand. "It has grown so much that we have as supply," says Juan Barbosa, president of the Paraguayan Chamber of Stevia. "Now we have 2,000 hectares cultivated. In four or five years we want to be 10,000 and 50,000 in 2030. But almost all exported before, now domestic consumption is increasing. "

Although stevia is of South American origin, the largest producers and consumers are in Asia: more than half of the crops are in China. The fact that the plant produces three crops a year in well-drained sandy soils, where other crops do not prosperarían- has aroused the interest of producers of half the world. "It's a very efficient plant," says Mitchell. "Use less water and less land than traditional sugar crops, and its carbon dioxide footprint is much smaller".

Jeroen van Stapele points of Agristevia. This Dutch discovered the green leaf of stevia two years ago as decoration that served ice cream dessert in a restaurant. Today coordinates 50 farmers who grow about 60 acres of stevia. "We're getting requests from places like Turkey, Egypt and other African countries".

The approval of stevia as a food product remains a complex process. "Take the case of a soft dough filled donut," Kutz said. "You can put stevia on coverage, or the filling, but you can not put it in the ground because he was not authorized to bake. It is not an abstract problem, which is resistant to heat, it is a problem of the authorization. We hope the regulator will give account, in due course, give your permission. "

In addition, the plant itself has still not received approval from the health authorities in Europe and US  States because of side effects, including contraceptive properties. The large companies that market are purified from the plant, which are obtained by chemical extraction compounds. The most abundant, stevioside, have  characteristic bitter taste; why companies opt for other less common compound rebaudioside, which does not have that problem.

The question that the industry faces is: if relevant part of the plant represents, by weight, less than one thousandth of the plant, is it still stevia The answer is no. "Multinational sell synthetics" he says. "Consumers are looking for stevia is not going to believe that you sell products with stevia 1%." "We Awareness astern people about the benefits of integrated stevia consumption". "Its properties are unique in the world. If approved, we are talking about a demand far beyond the current. We speak of 100,000, 500,000 tonnes ".

Reference:

 BBC/UK

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