PureCircle plans to increase StarLeaf stevia planting by 200%

Malaysia’s stevia sweetener producer PureCircle is planning to increase StarLeaf stevia planting this year, in order to increase the supply to the food and beverage industries.

The company intends to plant approximately 16,000t this year, which is said to be a 200% increase in comparison to the previous year’s plantation.

PureCircle Agriculture Operations vice-president James Foxton said: “It is a testament to our world-class agronomy programme and is enabling PureCircle to deliver the best-tasting stevia varieties on a global scale.

“Products from this leaf are revolutionising the way our customers work with and adopt stevia.

“We look forward to providing food and beverage companies access to the most sugar-like content from the leaf, at a scale which has never before been possible.”

By using its global agricultural network, the company sources stevia products from various countries.

PureCircle has recently entered new farming partnerships in North Carolina, US, as a result of which the company decided to increase StarLeaf planting this year.

By expanding plantings and use of its proprietary StarLeaf stevia leaf, PureCircle intends to meet the increasing demand for its products from the food and beverage industries.

The company further noted that 80% of the stevia plants it uses this year will be StarLeaf, which is its non-GMO stevia plant that yields roughly 20x more stevia leaf sweeteners than conventional stevia varieties.