Syros
Valuing every bit of avocado
#pitsandpeels #avocados #circularinnovation #businessdevelopment
Thinking back of food in the nineties might bring back cherished memories of terribly great cappuccino and lots of candy jewelry. Yet there was one Flemish company, well ahead of their time, that already started bringing us avocados.
Meet Syros, amongst the first in Europe to see the gastronomic and nutritious potential of this rich green fruit. Almost 30 years later, Syros is ever more determined to bring us the best of avocados - even of the pits and peels.
Mathias Boels, Innovation Manager, tells us all about it.
First off: Syros wants to bring us avocados as part of a sustainable diet. How is that?
Mathias Boels, Innovation Manager at Syros:
We have to feed 8 and soon 9 billion people on this planet. If there is one thing that’s beyond question, it’s that we need to move towards nutritious, mostly plant-based diets. Avocado fits this bill in many ways, as it is dense in several vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, and fiber.
Yet, a lot of poorly framed information around avocados has seen headlines in the past years. Let me illustrate by zooming in on the matter of water use: on average, a kilogram of avocados needs about 600L of water to grow. That may sound like a lot, but an average kilogram of apples requires 800L of water and a kilogram of beef would need 15.000L. A kilogram of avocado, when grown in areas of Colombia that get rain daily, actually only requires 10L to grow.
Food sustainability is a nuanced story that needs to be understood in context. That is not to say that we needn’t take matters as ‘avocados are the blood diamonds of Mexico’ seriously. But it’s crucial to understand that this problem is political and not intrinsically tied to the cultivation of avocado. We are SMETA audited, ensuring ethics throughout our value chain as much as possible.
Done right, avocados are part of the solution to sustainably feed our growing global population and create financially viable business for farmers, too. That’s our mission.
Why does Syros want to make products with avocado pits and peels?
It started with an ambition to prevent food waste. Just as with all other fruits and vegetables, a considerable amount of avocado’s used to get thrown away before hitting the stores, for not having the right ripeness or look. With our line of Wonky dips, we’ve started rescuing avocados that were previously discarded at the auction of Rotterdam.
People often think that rescued vegetables are cheaper than their regular counterparts. This is true for purchasing, but when you process avocados here in Belgium and the Netherlands, labor costs are significantly higher than when processing them near the site of cultivation.
Now, imagine slicing open an avocado. The pit is a pretty big part of the fruit. On average, an avocado consists of 55% pulp and 45% pit and peel. Throwing this away makes no sense, financially nor environmentally.
The high labor costs of locally manufacturing the Wonky products triggered our ambition to valorize avocado pits and peels. However, working on preventing waste from our production is about much more than profit. It’s an integral part of doing business in a way that we align financial viability with sustainable practice. We’re walking our talk. This is immensely motivating.
How did GLIMPS.bio help you?
Clear overview of applications with pros and cons
GLIMPS.bio provided us with a clear overview of potential applications for avocado pits and peels, including their estimated time-to-market, maturity of the market and more pros and cons.
Getting quickly to a broad scope of possibilities
We were surprised by the amount of possible applications for avocado pits and peels and impressed with the professionalism with which GLIMPS.bio presented us the information. If we had had to do this exploration work ourselves, it would have taken ten times more time and energy to get to an overview - and we would have most likely not taken into account as many possible options.
Confidence to get started
In providing this exploration overview, GLIMPS.bio helped us get our bearings on how to approach the valorization and commercialisation of our side stream. The fact that GLIMPS.bio has been to the process of valorization before, gives a lot of confidence. We’re off to a good start.
What’s next for Syros in your valorization journey?
Out of all the options of what we can do with avocado pits and peels, we’ve selected the two that we’re most interested in further exploring. Next on our agenda is figuring out the business case, together with GLIMPS.bio. What costs must be incurred and what profit can be made? Even within these economically turbulent times, we’re strong-minded to continue. We don’t want to look back and realize what an enormous opportunity we’ve missed.
What do you recommend to other business leaders who want to work with their side streams?
Reach out to GLIMPS.bio!
Seriously though. It won't be possible to get value from every side stream, but on average I suspect many companies could do a lot more with them. If you think this is the case for you, surround yourselves with the right expertise and get started.
“Working on preventing waste from our production is about much more than profit. It’s an integral part of doing business in a way that we align financial viability with sustainable practice. We’re walking our talk. This is immensely motivating. Even within these economically turbulent times, we’re strong-minded to continue. We don’t want to look back and realize what an enormous opportunity we’ve missed.”
— Mathias Boels, Innovation Manager at Syros
From waste to revenue,
from fossil to bio-based.
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