PureCircle, world’s largest and fast growing stevia sweetener and flavor Company. A veteran marketer and business strategist with expertise in sustainability, Ajay is currently playing a major role in establishing the South Asia operations for PureCircle. He has been instrumental in building core technical, sales and marketing infrastructure to drive PureCircle’s ambitious goals in this region. He started with PureCircle in September 2011 as Global Marketing Director for North America and Asia Pacific. Based out of greater Chicago office, he played a vital role in the development of several markets including, USA, Canada and China. He later managed corporate sustainability for the company where under his leadership PureCircle completed the industry’s first carbon and water footprint, established 2020 goals and developed innovative ways to communicate stevia’s benefits to B2B and B2C audiences. 
Under his leadership, PureCircle won several prestigious sustainability awards such as Ethical Corp Award, World Dairy Congress and FiE (Food Ingredients Europe) and many more. He then went on to lead some of the largest global accounts based in the USA for PureCircle until his current assignment as head of South Asia region. Mr. Ajay Chandran is Senior Director and Head of South Asia in an email interaction with Adil Abbas Naqvi, reveals the current scenario in the Indian market and outlook for his company.Excerpts.
Q. Tell us something about the organization?
PureCircle is the world’s leading producer of high-purity stevia ingredients for the global food and beverage industry and a force for good in the world. Its mission is to encourage healthier diets around the world through the supply of natural ingredients to the global food and beverage industry. Our vision is to lead the global expansion of stevia as the next mass volume, natural-origin sweetener. Working with partners, customers, and suppliers, the Company is focused on what is needed to make this vision a reality: delivering great taste, ensuring consumer acceptance, fostering ingredient advocacy and delivering scaled supply in a responsible, sustainable manner. PureCircle’s shares are listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange and trade under the ticker symbol PURE.
PureCircle has offices around the world with the global headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. PureCircle has 72 plus stevia-related patents granted with 200 pending. 
Currently the leaves are grown in three continents including in Paraguay, Latin America, Eastern Africa, China, Europe and in the US. Stevia leaf based ingredients from PureCircle are refined in a state of the art plant in Malaysia. As we develop a sizeable demand, we will look at India too as a sourcing base. India already has been growing stevia for Ayurvedic and medicinal purposes. Stevia is called in many regions by farmers by its vernacular names for example Meethi Tulsi in Hindi, Seeni Tulsi in Tamil, Madhu Parani in Marathi and Madhu Patra in Sanskrit. As far as growing is concerned, India on the face of it has many regions that are well suited to growing stevia. India already has been growing stevia for Ayurvedic and medicinal purposes for decades. Unfortunately, the currently grown varieties in India are not commercially viable for the type of high purity targeted glycoside that PureCircle desires. Therefore, we have to bring our own varieties and test various cultivars in soil under Indian environment and then propagate them. We are in India for long term and are hopeful that India will be a great leaf base for PureCircle in coming years.
PureCircle formally entered India last year with plans to build a robust infrastructure over the next five years. India is one of the last major markets to have approved high purity stevia leaf extract as a sweetener, opening the doors for PureCircle’s investment. We are confident that our innovative high purity stevia ingredients, specifically our Sigma series matrix solutions are going to revolutionise the Indian F&B sector’s efforts to moderate sugar naturally for Indian consumers without compromising with the great taste.
Q. What makes PureCircle different from competitors?
From seed to leaf to sweetener, PureCircle is nurturing taste breakthroughs through every step of the stevia journey. We have dedicated ourselves to understand the stevia leaf like no other organization. The stevia leaf contains more than 40 types of steviol glycosides or molecules, each with its own peculiarities and none of the calories compared to sugar. 
Because of our innovation leadership, we have identified which of these molecules taste closest to sugar and how they perform in different matrixes singularly or in combinations to enable B2B companies to develop great tasting naturally sweetened products.
In the past and even now most stevia companies have concentrated on scaling the most widely prevalent Reb A molecule around its purity levels (65%, 75%, 80% 95%, 99% etc). However, Reb A has several taste limitations like bitterness and lingering. The future is clearly beyond Reb A and our recently announced Star Leaf that contains 20 times more of the novel sugar like steviol glycosides will revolutionize the industry further by making the greatest tasting glycosides commercially viable.
As the industry leader and with our company being founded as a biotech company, we have spent considerable resources to understanding and mining the leaf. In fact, PureCircle is the first and as of now only company to have mapped the genome of stevia. It has enabled us to understand how will continue to lead the development of the best tasting stevia products in the industry that will help drive deepest reduction of sugar without compromising great taste.
Because of our leadership in all things stevia, we have made available a variety of information from the PureCircle Stevia Institute (formerly Global Stevia Institute). PCSI is the only institute of its kind supported by leading paediatricians, nutritionists and toxicologists. These researchers can provide credible science based information to key opinion leaders so as to ensure that consumers and KOL have accurate information.
From the start, company’s goal was to build on the notion of small footprint, big impact. So PureCircle designed a business model that integrated sustainability from the seed to the farmers to its sweeteners and Flavors. Every gram of stevia used to moderate sugar content in a food and beverage also has a positive environmental and eco system impact. The company has adopted a sustainable agricultural policy that supports thousands of farmers through its fair market policy.
Q. What is the significance of sweetener in the food processing industry?
Sweeteners play a vital role in ensuring the taste success of a food and beverage product. For a long time the sweetener market was dominated by sugar and other artificial sweeteners. But now with the growing global demand for clean label ingredients and concerns about obesity and diabetes, beverage and food companies are working responsibly to reduce sugar and calories in their products responding to both consumers and health and wellness advocates. 
Stevia is catching pace across the globe as a Natural Sweetener and is well accepted in current scenario by F&B players and consumers due to the growing awareness and demand for plan derived sweeteners.
The concept of a natural sweetener with no calories and great tastes is highly appealing to consumers and brands alike. Today, close to 14,000 products have been launched with stevia and it is the primary vehicle for sugar reduction being used by major established and upstart brands in getting to great taste with reduced calories typically associated with natural caloric sweeteners. In many markets, consumers are also very negative towards man made sweeteners like sucralose, aspartame and saccharin so stevia addresses the demand like no other sweetener can today.
Q. What are the regulations and safety standards that you follow while manufacturing?
All major global regulatory organisations, across 65 countries, have approved the use of high-purity stevia leaf extracts in food and beverages. The safety of highly purified stevia extracts is supported by more than 200 rigorous scientific research and evaluation necessary for an ingredient to be approved for use in foods and beverages today. In order for an ingredient to be mainstream, it needs to be great tasting, safe, scalable and economically viable. We are the only company that truly is vertical from leaf development, extraction to purification. Cutting edge innovation as evidenced by 72 patents granted and hundreds pending and decoding the genome of stevia leaf have allowed us to mine the insights related to great taste like no other.
Converting the intellectual property to commercial products is supported by an unmatched integrated supply chain that goes from leaf development to agronomic support for farming, to extraction and finally purification to end sweetener and flavour products. Because our business is global, we are increasingly diversifying our leaf away from China (source of 95% of industry) and today our leaf comes from four different continents. At the same time we are also increasing rapidly the yields of the best tasting molecules in our leaf through traditional cross breeding. These leaves are sent to world’s largest extraction plant before being converted to 23 sweeteners (including Matrix Solutions) and flavours in a state of the art Purification plant in Malaysia. These sweeteners and flavours are today sent to pretty much every major food and beverage company as well as sugar companies and flavour houses across the globe.
We have enabled our global network of labs in four continents to support product launches of thousands of products. With our flagship South Asia lab opened recently in Gurgaon, we can provide those technical inputs to B2B companies in this region to accelerate their product development. Lot of the common matrix will benefit from Sigma Solutions (Tabletop, Dairy, Beverages, and Sweets). If need be, we can also provide customized support through our South Asia Lab. This infrastructure is absolutely critical as stevia is not one molecule and different matrix has different taste challenges. The knowledge of decades of product development is now available in a new market like India, thanks to this lab.
Q. Your company is the leading manufacturer in sweetener. How do you maintain your position in an industry which is fast growing with new competitors?
PureCircle is only company that is able to innovate at all parts of the supply chain because of tight supply chain control. Because our batch size is very large (1 batch size = 300 MT of sugar sweetness), we can produce at high degree of consistency, safety and commercial viability. In fact there are many products with our portfolio that can enable parity at cost to natural caloric sweeteners today. Our Star Leaf program has yielded 20X times more novel sugar like glycosides that are set to be the future of the industry. The products including our Zeta and Sigma range include the best tasting assortment of products that are unmatched in the industry to drive full calorie reduction with clean and rounded taste.
Being the global leader, customers rely on our innovation, supply chain and application expertise in accelerating product development. Our recently established South Asia lab in Gurgaon now offers a plethora of support from marketing insights, regulatory support to application support to enable customers to go from concept to launch quickly.
Even if you are a small, midsized corporation, we have the capability to support development of a stevia sweetened, lower calorie product through our network of distributors. In addition, we have a suite of allied services to support launches including marketing insights, collaterals, regulatory support and credible science based informational support from PureCircle Stevia institute (formerly Global Stevia Institute). Almost every company we have talked to has valued these assets to enable their successful launch.
The goodness of stevia and its presence in a consumer product can be communicated by PureCircle Stevia Trustmark, which is the industry’s most widely used trustmark. Companies using PureCircle products have been given the rights to add the trustmark through which they can communicate and educate their consumer on stevia origin, its farming, manufacturing, sustainability etc. The consumer can be directed to a plethora of easy to understand information through combinations of video, infographics, pictures and easy to understand articles. Many major brands globally have used this trustmark for education and communication to differentiate their products which can be “blipped” or “scanned” directly from the product packaging.
Q. What are the industrial trends in sweetener industry? What is the demand and scope of business in India?
Consumers globally and in India are demanding that they imbibe products that have ingredients which they can understand. They are sceptical of ingredients that sound like they are manufactured in a plant with no basis of natural origin. We are very excited about the South Asian market as Indian consumers in particular and South Asian consumers in general increasingly avail of the benefit of calorie reduction through natural ingredients and solutions. In this scenario, Stevia has a wide appeal.
In a short span of time, we have ensured a double digit growth in India. Our commercial journey started with the establishment of our first South Asia Office and Lab in Gurgaon earlier this year. For those customers who have a standard matrix, product development can start from our matrix customized range of Sigma Solutions. These Sigma Solutions have come about from our years of experience of developing stevia sweetened formulations across 4 continents but tailored to Indian palate. We are pleased to state that we have developed the following Sigma products for the most common matrixes in this region-
a) Sigma D- for Yogurts, Fermented milks etc.
b) Sigma Traditional Sweets Wet, Sigma Sweets Dry- for traditional sweets like Soan Papdi and Gulab Jamun etc.
c) Sigma B- for Beverages like Carbonates, Mango and other flavoured juices, Chocolate Milk
d) Sigma S- for tabletop and baking sweetener
All deep reductions are now possible at great taste using PureCircle Sigma solutions. If our customers need further application support, we provide on bench lab work support which is also offered to B2B R&D teams to help develop their stevia sweetened formulations.
Q. What are the different kinds of sweetener and which one variety has the highest consumption with regards to its money value?
The stevia industry has evolved from crude extracts to Reb A to the latest Sigma and Zeta innovations brought by PureCircle. PureCircle portfolio of products include natural Flavors and sweeteners. We have several sweeteners and Flavors that can help get to reductions of 10-15% at great taste and cost advantage. Our Sigma range of products under Sigma B (Beverages), Sigma D (Dairy), Sigma S (Table Tops) and Sigma Traditional Sweets are well suited for moderate to deep sugar reduction at cost parity.
Q. What are the current trends in the Asia-Pacific food ingredients sector?
We see clean labels, healthful products with different taste ingredients being really in trend. Within this, salt reduction, sugar reduction, fat reduction and high protein, vitamin and “healthy” ingredient infused products being specifically fast growing. So we are starting to see flavoured waters growing rapidly globally as opposed to say Cola, Greek Yogurts and high protein milks instead of traditional products. Plant based alternative milks instead of Dairy. Turmeric, Ashwagandha and Kombhucha instead of the newest citrus or berry flavours. Consumers are looking for a reason to consume a product and brand and many times it is associated with its health and wellness proposition.
Q. What are the visible trends emerging in the use and consumption pattern of Natural Sweetener in India?
Given the growing global concerns about obesity and diabetes, several beverage and food companies are working responsibly to reduce sugar and calories in their products, responding to both consumers and health and wellness advocates. Our proprietary consumer insights show that amongst consumers who are aware of stevia, 83% have a very strong positive perception of stevia. This compares to 53% very strong positive perception for sugar, showing a real opportunity for formulations with stevia.
B2B companies also understand the macro trends within which they operate and these include afore stated consumer demand for “natural” but also increasing threat of governments and regulatory actions on fat, salt and sugar content and taxes and the decreasing perceptions amongst Indian consumers of artificial sweeteners and sugar. Major MNC’s and increasingly mid to large Indian companies understand these global mega trends and are taking actions to address consumer demands and increasingly turning to stevia- which has no warning labels unlike artificial sweeteners-even in India to address some of their challenges.
There is considerable interest in developing stevia sweetened products and we have already seen some major launches in the country. Today, many marque brands in Carbonates, Flavoured Milk, Yogurt and Yogurt Drinks, Iced Tea, Syrup Drinks, Packaged Fruit Juice, Confectionary, Powdered Soft Drinks, TableTop, Ketchups, Cereals and several indulgence categories like Ice-creams also use stevia. The industry found easy success in beverage (Juices, enhanced waters, teas/coffee and carbonates) format at first but increasingly we have seen dairy with yogurts and milks being a huge growth area.
We are confident that our innovative high purity stevia ingredients, specifically our Sigma series matrix solutions tailored to Indian consumer tastes in Beverage, Traditional Sweets, Home cooking use, Dairy are going to revolutionise the Indian F&B sector’s efforts to moderate sugar naturally for Indian consumers without compromising with the great taste.
Q. What are the challenges faced by you in regards to regulations, raw-material, and manpower? How do you overcome them?
Since its inception PureCircle has worked with various regulatory bodies in different countries to obtain approval for the use of stevia-based sweeteners in foods and beverages. Stevia is approved by all major safety and regulatory bodies worldwide including US FDA, EU EFSA, and FSSAI etc.
About four years after PureCircle’s engagement with regulatory authorities, a scientific panel on food additives at the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recommended the use of stevia. The food regulator gave the final go-ahead in November 2015. This has opened a plethora of categories that now can incorporate Stevia as a sweet source. India is certainly a very promising market for stevia because of our high standards for “sweet” both intensity and quality. The current regime at FSSAI is also listening to various stake holders- consumers, industry, medical practitioners- while framing laws but it is important to also look ahead as to what may come down the wire based on global trends. Sugar, fat, salt are all under scrutiny across the globe. The regimes globally have adopted various practices from on pack detailed communication traffic light system or adding punitive cess or taxes on entire categories and/or sugar content. It is happening in developing and developed countries alike. In fact just a few days back, Sri Lanka imposed sugar taxes of 50 p for every gram of sugar in beverage, forcing many companies to react to the situation overnight. Those brands that had prepared for the possibility are in a better position to react faster with a naturally sweetened formulation.
Q. What can the bakery and confectionery industries expect from your operations?
These categories are currently not approved for stevia sweetener usage but we have natural Flavors that are derived from the stevia leaf that can add real value through its flavour modification. These also can provide B2B brands with added economic benefits. There is a wide range of Flavors that can be used in confectionary and bakery industries and manufacturers can get benefit from flavour modification properties of our natural Flavors. For example NSF-06 can help enhance Vanilla and Citrus notes and NSF-07 can help with enhancing Cocoa and Chocolate notes.
Q. What is the future scenario and how do you look at the Indian market, say by 2020?
More than 14,000 products have been launched globally across all kinds of categories and reduction levels ranging from slight sugar reductions to 100% sugar reductions by small and major corporations. We can expect to see a similar trend of launches. Our vision of stevia globally and in India is to mainstream it as the next mass consumption natural sweetener. We expect that by 2020, stevia acceptance by consumers, farmers, B2B makers and public health advocates as a sweetener of choice would be significantly greater than it is today.
Due to its natural and herbal origins, stevia with its no calories, is highly appealing to consumers. Proprietary consumer insights reveal more than 80% of Indian consumers would purchase a food or beverage sweetened with stevia. India has one of the highest diabetes incidences in the world with as many as 65 million people suffering from type-2 diabetes. Younger populations are increasingly over weight but they are also becoming increasingly conscious of what they eat. The trends of obesity and diabetes and accompanying NCD are not being ignored by health practitioners, government and responsible companies.
We expect by 2020, that major sugar reductions across categories in juices, carbonated drinks, Indian sweets, Chai’s, home cooking all are possible with stevia. In addition, we expect that stevia becomes an important arsenal in the hands of public health practitioners and consumers to drive down calorie consumption in their fight with over-weightness or diabetes. We also hope to see stevia as a crop grown in increasing volume within the country.
