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Sugar manufacturer Nordzucker is entering a new business segment with an investment of more than €100 million into the production of plant-based proteins. Headquartered in Germany, Nordzucker has announced that it will put a new plant into operation for this new business segment at its site in Groß Munzel, Lower Saxony, by mid-2026. The expansion is expected to create around 60 additional jobs and reflects the “increasingly important role in the future” that plant-based nutrition is set to play, said Nordzucker’s CEO Lars Gorissen. He commented: “We are supplementing our portfolio with a product that fits in well with our core competences and are thus consistently pursuing our growth strategy”. The company will produce and sell pea proteins to be used as a source of protein and texturizer in plant-based food. It will rely particularly on the yellow pea from regional cultivation, which Gorissen said fulfills all the requirements for economical and sustainable production with its ability to be grown in many regions and fit well into the crop rotations of farms. Nordzucker can produce peas all year round due to their shelf life. They will be marketed as a concentrate and dry texturate for further processing in the food and animal feed industry. The company’s chief financial officer, Alexander Bott, said double-digit growth rates are expected per year in the pea protein concentrates and texturates segment, so the company is “setting a fast pace in terms of implementation”. Construction of the new production facilities is scheduled to begin in autumn 2024. The plant will benefit from Nordzucker’s existing infrastructure and transport links, enabling good access to raw materials from many arable farming regions and to sales markets. The supervisory board of Nordzucker has supported the entry into the new business segment and expansion of production capacity at the Groß Munzel site.