Pongamia trees offer the most sustainable source of culinary oil and plant protein on earth. And Danone and Terviva are working to develop new food products that utilise pongamia oil and plant protein. The collaboration illustrates the shared vision of Danone and Terviva to improve the environmental outcomes of the food system by supporting regenerative farming practices that improve soil health, water quality and biodiversity, while also improving social and market outcomes.
Formed in 2010, Terviva is an agricultural technology company that produces non-GMO culinary oil and plant protein from Pongamia trees with oil-rich seeds similar to soybeans. Pongamia is a legume tree native to Asia (known as Karanji tree in India) that is affordable, grows in poor-quality soils and can be used in reforestation to grow nutritious beans.
Terviva partners with growers to cultivate thousands of acres of pongamia tree plantings in Florida, Hawaii and Australia and wild harvest beans from smallholders in India. The company’s traceable supply chains turn sustainably grown pongamia beans into nutritious plant-based food ingredients.
A unique nutritional powerhouse
Utilising experience in management consulting, technology, natural resources and agriculture, Naveen Sikka, CEO & founder established Terviva to understand and extend the benefits of the ancient Pongamia tree’s resilience and protein and oil-packed beans.
Terviva has since introduced pongamia as a new commercial crop that converts distressed farmland into sustainable, productive acreage. Under Naveen’s leadership, Terviva has unlocked pongamia’s potential as a climate-friendly, nutritional powerhouse for feeding the world’s rising population.
Naveen says, “We know that we need new technologies such as solar and wind power. Similarly, in agriculture we need new crops. Our pongamia trees grow on degraded agriculture land so that we not only avoid the deforestation issues created by soybeans and oil palm, we create new forests to help address climate change.”
Using natural, proprietary food processing methods, Terviva creates a golden-coloured, buttery cooking oil and highly-soluble plant protein from the beans of the regenerative pongamia tree, which is far more sustainable than other oilseed crops commonly used today, such as palm and soy. Terviva works with farmers to plant pongamia trees on idle agricultural land that is often difficult to farm due to poor soil or water stress. On this type of land, an orchard of pongamia trees captures 115 metric tons of carbon per acre over 30 years, ranking pongamia among the the most sustainable sources of edible oil and plant protein.
How Protein and Oil Yields Stack Up
Terviva is the first company to develop high-yielding, non-GMO cultivars of pongamia and to create edible protein and oil from its beans to feed people. Product partners draw on Terviva’s plant protein and vegetable oil supply chain that is world class in its low-carbon intensity, traceability and cost competitiveness with existing oilseed supplies.
From planting to food products
Terviva sells world-class pongamia trees to growers, helping them raise resilient crops and harvest beans for processing. As a part of the partnership, growers agree to sell their crop back to TerViva for 25 years of stable, sustainable income. The company then processes the beans into sustainable protein, feed and oil ingredients with valuable functionality and good cost profile.
The beans are also delivered to partners who create diverse products for plant protein, feed ingredients and high oleic oil applications. Terviva shares revenue with growers, providing alignment from grove caretaking to the development of high-value products.
Recently Terviva raised US$ 54 million in equity capital to commercialise its highly-sustainable, new-to-market culinary oil and plant protein. Terviva expects to close an additional US$ 24M in equity and debt capital this quarter, for a total of US$ 78M in capital to drive its expansion.
A transformational regenerative food solution
“We believe that healthy foods need a healthy planet with thriving ecosystems and strong, resilient social structures. This is why we are excited to team up with Terviva to co-develop important ingredients – edible protein and oil – from the pongamia tree, while also rehabilitating the soil the tree grows in,” says Merijn Dols, global director of open innovation & circular economy for food of Danone.
Supporting this partnership is MISTA, a San Francisco based global innovation platform. MISTA’s purpose is to transform the global food system to meet the needs of the future by leveraging collaborations between the largest food, ingredient, and technology players with the most innovative, early-stage companies in the world.
Scott May, head of MISTA says, “The collaboration between Terviva and Danone brings to life a truly transformational, regenerative food solution. We’re proud to have made this collaboration possible and to satisfy consumers’ appetites for plant-based foods that are nutritious and sustainable for people and the Planet.”
Terviva will open a facility in the US in 2022 to produce pongamia-based foods. Terviva’s recently-formed advisory board has provided extensive guidance to the company on its commercial goals. The three members of the advisory board are: Vijay Advani, Chairman of the US-India Business Council and former Executive Chair of Nuveen; Joe Light, a 30-year food industry veteran who recently retired from Ingredion as Senior Vice President for Innovation; and Ann M. Veneman, US Secretary of Agriculture (2001-2005), Executive Director of UNICEF (2005-2010), and Board of Directors, Nestle (2011-Present).
“Among the greatest global challenges is feeding the world’s rising population sustainably and fairly. Terviva’s innovations are expanding the options to create healthy, sustainable and accessible foods,” says Ann Veneman.
Pongamia trees are hearty and regenerative:
- Stores carbon and produces nitrogen for healthy soils
- Requires little to no fertiliser or pesticides
- Requires relatively low water usage in sub-tropical areas
- Adapted to climate extremes, particularly annual monsoonal drought and flood cycles
- Dense network of lateral roots control soil erosion.
Also Read: How RMSI developed an ICT-based value chain governance platform for farmers in Malawi
