NEWS IN BRIEF
High-yield stevia output gets boost
A leading stevia maker is to ramp up production of a variety claimed to yield roughly 20 times more stevia than the conventional plant.
Under its StarLeaf stevia expansion programme, PureCircle planned to plant nearly 16,000t in 2018, an increase of about 200% over the year before. The expansion was partly down to new farming partnerships in North Carolina, it said.
PureCircle estimated that 80% of the stevia plants it used this year would be StarLeaf, increasing to 90% next year.
Mintel claimed there were 3,500 products launched with stevia in 2017, up 10% on 2016.
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