PureCircle, North Carolina farmers to harvest first stevia in US

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 (Bernama) --  PureCircle, the world’s leading producer and innovator of stevia sweeteners and its North Carolina farmer partners will soon harvest its first commercial-scale crop of Starleaf™ stevia grown in the US.

Stevia is a naturally sweet plant native to South America. Today, it is grown around the world, especially in Kenya, China and the US. The sweet-tasting parts of the stevia leaf are up to 400 times sweeter than sugar.

PureCircle’s proprietary Starleaf stevia contains more of the best-tasting stevia sweeteners, such as Reb M, than other stevia plant variants, a statement said. 

Following successful Starleaf stevia plot trials in North Carolina in 2017, PureCircle and a number of farmers in the state increased the amount of acreage dedicated to stevia by tenfold this year. 

The quality and yield of that Starleaf stevia met PureCircle’s standards and the company plans to increase significantly the acreage used to grow stevia in the US over the next two to three years.

The North Carolina program is enabling PureCircle to broaden and diversify its supply chain by increasing the amount of Starleaf stevia grown in different areas around the globe throughout the year.

This gives food and beverage companies further confidence to launch global brands with PureCircle’s best-tasting stevia leaf sweeteners like Reb M.

PureCircle chief executive officer, Maga Malsagov said: “Our partnerships in North Carolina will significantly increase our supply of Starleaf stevia plants grown in North America and thereby geographically diversify our stevia plant supply.

“We currently have three strong farming partnerships in North Carolina, and we expect to bring many more farmers into our program. We could not be more pleased with this year’s results,” Malsagov added.

Fortunately, the North Carolina farms growing the Starleaf stevia plants were not damaged by Hurricane Florence which tragically ravaged some areas of the Carolinas.

Stevia leaf extract is a natural, zero calorie, high-intensity sweetener, used by global food and beverage companies as a great-tasting zero-calorie alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners. More details on www.purecircle.com

--BERNAMA