East of Scotland Growers is partnering with food tech company Upcycled Plant Power to supply broccoli waste into ingredients, protein and fibre
Veg cooperative East of Scotland Growers has partnered with food tech company Upcycled Plant Power (UPP) to give broccoli growers a new route to market for on-farm surplus.
Under the agreement, ESG growers will use UPP’s automated selective harvesting technology to harvest and supply surplus broccoli material to UPP as an ingredient feedstock.
ESG will benefit from shares in sales of the upcycled ingredients, allowing growers to monetise side-streams without additional operational risk or capital investment.
UPP creates hypoallergenic vegetarian protein products and fibre ingredients, supplying food manufacturers and retailers.
“By combining ESG’s agricultural scale and expertise with UPP’s proprietary processing and ingredient technology, we are turning materials with little to no commercial value into nutritious proteins and fibres for food makers and retailers,” said UPP’s CEO, Mark Evans.
It’s estimated that UPP will benefit from over £1 million of ingredients from the new supply of broccoli biomass, while growers could save more than 30 per cent in harvest costs and reduced labour needs.
“This collaboration improves farm profitability while contributing to a food system that is more sustainable and resilient,” said ESG business development director, Andy Laing.
“We have been working with our supermarket partners to address Scope 3 emissions reduction, and working with UPP is helping us meet those goals,” he said.
UPP’s has received £3.5 million in seed funding, including £1.5 mn from climate-focused investors Elbow Beach.
Investor director at Elbow Beach, Andy Summerfield, said: “UPP’s partnership with East of Scotland Growers is exactly the kind of solution we want to support; transforming under-utilised agricultural biomass into high-value, nutritious ingredients while delivering meaningful economic returns to farmers.”
