ADM and Benson Hill have announced a strategic partnership to scale high-protein soy ingredients that will meet rapidly-growing demand for plant-based proteins. The partnership will serve a variety of food and beverage markets, to meet savory, sweet, and dairy customer needs.
 
ADM will process and commercialize a portfolio of proprietary ingredients derived from Benson Hill Ultra-High Protein soybeans through an exclusive North American licensing partnership. The collaboration will scale ingredients enabled by Benson Hill genetics that feature less-processed proteins with water and carbon sustainability benefits.
 
We’re excited to launch this collaboration with Benson Hill, building full seed-to-fork capabilities with cutting-edge technologies that will allow us to offer new, innovative products to our alternative protein customers,” said Leticia Gonçalves, ADM’s president of Global Foods. “The global trends of food security and sustainability are driving significant and ongoing demand growth for alternative proteins: Alternative meat and dairy sales alone are expected to grow 14% a year, reaching $125 billion by 2030. ADM has expanded global capacity to meet that demand with the acquisition of Sojaprotein and the recently-announced investment to enhance processing and supply capabilities and build a new protein solutions innovation center in Decatur, Illinois. Now, working with Benson Hill, we’re taking the next step, expanding our value chain and adding new technologies that will power our ability to offer differentiated, high-value products to meet consumer demand for delicious, nutritious alternative proteins.”
 
Benson Hill’s CropOS technology platform uses data analytics and biological knowledge to combine the genetic information of a plant, formulation needs of a customer, and data from farmers to develop more nutritious, flavorful, and sustainable ingredients.
 
 When combined with ADM’s expertise in origination, applications, and formulation, as well as processing capacity for food markets, the collaboration will create a pathway to commercial-scale production of alternative protein products, according to the companies.
 
The two companies will jointly engage farmer partners who would like to participate.
 
“Seed innovation underpins the seed-to-fork movement by solving food formulation challenges in the farmer’s field, creating ingredients that are better from the beginning,” said Matt Crisp, CEO of Benson Hill. “This partnership with ADM represents a major milestone in advancing our business to its next stage of growth, which also will serve to broaden our proprietary product portfolio and drive significant scale of ingredients derived from Benson Hill genetics. We are excited to partner with ADM to help address demand in high-value and high-growth protein ingredient markets, while broadly delivering innovation and impact across the agri-food value chain to benefit farmers, food companies and consumers.”