The go-ahead to build the plant (at Pemuco in the Bio Bio region about 400 km south of Santiago) came from the local environment agency, Conama. The Chilean authorities were said to be concerned about whether the plant - and the implication that Chilean farmers would be encouraged to switch to chicory root cultivation - would interfere with the local sugar beet and sweetener production.
Orafti said that the new plant would be used to produce its Raftiline inulin and Raftilose oligofructose brands, and stressed that the two sweeteners were not used as such as their sweetening power was too low compared to that of sugar. Instead, they are widely used as ingredients in the food industry for their nutritional and technical properties. The plant will not produce sugar, fructose or sugar syrups, Orafti said.
With Orafti predicting that around 500 local farmers will switch to chicory root cultivation in the short term alone - and with a capacity of tens of thousands of tons - the plant's impact on the local sugar beet industry could have been potentially significant, but the company's argument that chicory and sugar beet were not rival products was accepted - although the €165 million investment in Chile by the Belgian company, and the jobs that it will create, may also have played an important part.
The construction of the plant, which should be completed by 2006, will bring the cultivation of chicory roots on an industrial scale to Chile for the first time, according to Orafti. Although growing chicory roots has many aspects in common with growing sugar beet - a factor which also influenced the choice of Chile for the plant - there are also several aspects that are completely different and that need special care, Orafti said, adding that it would employ a support staff of agronomists to assist local farmers with the new crop.
But the Belgian company was quick to stress that the cultivation of chicory roots in Chile would not replace the traditional cultivation of sugar beet, but rather that the addition of chicory could help local growers improve their crop rotation. In addition, the quantities of chicory produced will be significantly lower than the quantities of sugar beet produced in Chile and as such should pose no long-term threat.
Demand for inulin and oligofructose products is increasing rapidly, the company said, linked to a growing awareness of their multiple properties as food ingredients, reducing fat and carbohydrates in food products and adding prebiotic properties (beneficial to gut health). Orafti recently reported research showing that a daily dose of its Raftilose Synergy1, a patented combination of inulin and oligofructose, increased calcium absorption in human volunteers. It is also researching the role of Raftilose Synergy1 in reducing the risk of colon cancer.
These health benefits have been the principal driver of sales growth for Orafti's products, and explain the need for the second extraction plant (the first is based in Oreye, Belgium). Indeed, Orafti says it has seen annual growth above 20 per cent for many years and that the Belgian plant was working at near maximum production capacity.
The Belgian plant will remain fully operational, the coampnmy stressed, with the Chilean plant giving Orafti the necessary additional capacity to meet the extra growth in sale. The company said that the Chilean plant would also allow it to expand exports to both Asia and North America.
Chicory is not the only vegetable which contains inulin and oligofructose: they can be found in many hundreds of plant species including onion, leek, wheat, artichoke and garlic. But as well as the health benefits of these products, they are also widely used within the food industry to improve the appearance, texture and eating quality in a wide range of foods and beverages. Applications include milk powder, dairy products, fresh fruit juices, baked and confectionery products and even pasta.
While Orafti said that virtually all the inulin and oligofructose produced at the Chilean plant would be exported, but that products containing the two ingredients were already available on the Chilean market, including Nestlé Svelty Diet yoghurt, Nestlé NIDO 1+ and 3+, and La Preferida light vienesas (sausages).