Bayn seeks partners as it ends exclusive Barentz stevia contract

The two companies signed a long-term agreement for the supply and distribution of Eureba brand stevia extract blend back in March 2012, but had been working together since natural sweetener won EU approval in November 2011.

The contract gave Bayn a route to market in Europe through access to the Barentz Group’s distribution channel.

The two also worked together on R&D for stevia applications, and Bayn’s stevia business grew during the time it worked exclusively with Barentz.

“As the market is now maturing, both parties saw a need to renegotiate our cooperation agreement,” ​said Bayn Europe managing director Lucy Dahlgren. “​We will continue to work with Barentz, but without exclusivity, based on focusing on single ingredient trading for sugar reduction​,”​ she told us.

Dahlgen said the decision has opened up the opportunity to work with new partners, and the Stockholm-headquartered company has already identified “other solution driven partners​” for Europe, she said.

“Besides our European market focus, we plan to enter into the China market where consumer perceptions and acceptance for new sugar reduced products are higher. We have identified partners in China and the strategic partnership is under discussion.”​

Bayn recently launched the Sugar Reduced Community​​, ​a platform designed to speed up industry and society’s “slow”​ reduction of sugar in foods.

It aims to facilitate communication between members of the food and beverage industries, provide information for consumers and make sugar reduction a corporate social responsibility (CSR) issue.

Privately-owned Barentz, whose head office is located in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands, generated a turnover of €810 million in 2014.