“Candidly,” admits ENOUGH CEO Jim Laird, scaling up mycoprotein production at the firm’s new plant in the Netherlands has been tough. “We’ve had a hard 12 months in terms of production efficiencies.” But demand is strong, with “really stunning interest” from large meat companies, he claims.
With industry pioneer Quorn reporting lackluster sales and Sweden’s Mycorena filing for bankruptcy in July (although it has since been acquired) it’s easy to see why some commentators might question whether the market can sustain new capacity, says Laird, who spoke to AgFunderNews at the Future Food-Tech summit in London.
But the picture varies widely depending on where you sit, notes Laird, who is targeting Western Europe in the immediate term.
“I have peers in North American companies who are so down on this market right now, whereas I’ve got one customer who came to our site with 25 people… and is forecasting a billion-euro business within the decade. So they alone would take every gram that I can produce, and there’s more than one [such customer].”
‘Can the market sustain the new mycoprotein capacity? Absolutely…’
Founded in 2015 as 3FBio, Glasgow-based ENOUGH makes its ABUNDA mycoprotein from the same fungi strain (Fusarium Venenatum) as Quorn via biomass fermentation at a plant in Sas van Gent in The Netherlands; it is exclusively a b2b business.
“For me, supply is the absolute constraint in this market right now,” says Laird. “We do see some softening in the market but the environmental crisis and the fundamental drivers for our protein transition have never gone away. And if we look at anybody’s forecasts of what that equates to, it means millions of tons of new protein required, and nobody’s adding millions of tons of new protein right now.
“So I love every ounce of added capacity that’s coming on. Can the market sustain it? Absolutely… We work with some of the larger meat companies, and from there we see some really stunning interest, people that are forecasting within 10 years, 100,000-ton individual demand.”
He adds: “Mycoprotein plays strongest in white meat applications, so we see massive opportunities there… along with some really interesting applications in non-dairy. But in terms of why the market is generally excited by mycoprotein, it’s about short ingredient lists with simple processing.”
To date, ENOUGH has raised just over €110 million ($120 million). Of this, just under €100 million ($109 million) is equity from backers including VC World Fund, CPT Capital, and Cargill, which supplies the sugary feedstock for ENOUGH’s plant in The Netherlands from a co-located start and sugars facility, says Laird.
“So we’re talking at Future Food-Tech London, and it’s a much harder environment [for fundraising] than it was several years back certainly. At the seed and series A stage the restriction is there, but I think for good quality growth stage [companies], there is investor support.”
Further reading:
Cargill bets on mycoprotein with investment in ENOUGH and signs offtake agreement
