Global stevia producer PureCircle to invest in India

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“Our investment in India signals the huge potential we see in this market for stevia as a sweetener and as an agricultural commodity,” says Jason Hecker, who heads PureCircle’s group sales and marketing department.

PureCircle also plans to help Indian food and beverage companies to formulate products using stevia as a sweetener.

Stevia, a naturally sourced “zero-calorie” sweetening agent, is a plant extract used as a “natural sugar substitute” around the world.

While stevia was first used in Paraguay around 200 years ago, it was made for commercial use in Japan for the first time in the year 1971. In 1984, China began cultivating stevia plants and, after an initial ban, the Food and Drug Authority of the US granted high-purity stevia leaf extract the status of GRAS, or Generally Recognised as Safe.

India recently approved stevia leaf extract as a sweetener, which facilitated PureCircle’s entry to the country. The company says its PureCircle Stevia Agronomy Program works directly with farmers.

“The agronomy program provides farmers with a contract that states a fixed price for the stevia they produce and teaches them how to grow the plant sustainably. Indian farmers that grow PureCircle stevia on 1 hectare of land can expect an income of about Rs 4 lakh per annum from the yield,” says the company.

Early agricultural trials for stevia, also called Meethi Tulsi and Meethi Patti by Indian farmers, are already under way in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.

Ajay Chandran, the company’s senior director for South Asia region, says, “Across the globe, PureCircle’s portfolio of innovative stevia sweeteners and flavors has enabled major brands to reformulate full sugar products with this natural, zero-calorie solution to address consumer demands. We feel confident that stevia’s approval in India will lead to new, lower calorie taste innovation for this market and help consumers significantly reduce their sweet calorie intake.”