Collagen industry moves R$50 billion and faces pressure – 11/06/2023 – Market

“People who eat mocotó are pure mocotó”, announced a well-known brand of this industrialized product in the 1970s and 1980s. But the traditional recipe from the time of Colonial Brazil made with cinnamon and ox foot, considered one of the most nutritious meals, It hasn’t gone out of fashion. It just gave way to hydrolyzed collagen.

The new “fountain of youth” pot is now easily available for sale in powder or capsule form. Known for being an anti-aging supplement, responsible for providing structure, firmness and elasticity to the skin and strengthening bones, tendons and ligaments, this concentrated protein, considered essential to the human body, as it is considered food, is sold without the need for a prescription.

As a raw material supply chain, Brazil today already has 15% more cattle than people, and herds are growing quickly, according to data from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) from 2022, released last September.

And as everything from cattle to screams is used in film soundtracks, soap operas and farm parties, the country has not been left out of one of the most profitable markets in recent years: concentrated collagen.

The commercial value of this protein was not new here or in 19th century Europe. Rousselot, for example, today an arm of Darling Ingredients, one of the world’s largest collagen-based solutions, had already been working industrially with the product molecule since the least 1891, in the production of gelatin from the skin, leather and bones of calves, birds, pigs and even fish.

Here in the country, when it still belonged to Vion, Rousselot purchased in 2008 the Rebiére Gelatinas factories, in Amparo, in the Campinas region, and in Presidente Epitácio, far west of São Paulo, on the border with Mato Grosso do Sul.

Currently owned by the North American Darling, the former European multinational has now joined Gelnex, which had factories in Goiás, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Paraguay and the United States. The company from Santa Catarina was purchased by the multinational for around R$6 billion, in a deal completed this year.

JBS, the global animal protein production giant, also entered this race for the “fountain of youth”. In the second half of last year, the company began producing collagen peptides and gelatin from the skin of cattle in the company’s production chain.

The investment in the business was R$400 million, with an eye on a market worth US$4 billion and which has grown by more than 15% annually in the last five years, according to the American consultancy Allied Market Research.

The new manufacturing plant, renovated from an old refrigerator in Presidente Epitácio, produces peptides and gelatin for the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. Collagen peptides are tiny protein particles that add ammonium acids and help hydrate the skin, reduce wrinkles, regenerate cartilage and combat the loss of muscle mass.

“It is a company that is already big, positioning itself among the three biggest players in the market, with 10% of the global market for peptides and bovine skin gelatin”, said Claudia Yamana, director of the group’s new company, Genu- In. The Brazilian’s biggest competitors are the German Gelita and Rousselot itself. All have operations in Brazil.

According to Thaise Mendes, president of Abiad (Brazilian Association of the Food Industry for Special Purposes and Related Purposes), “it is interesting to observe how collagen has gained prominence in the search for health and well-being in recent years”.

“The collagen supplement market is on the rise. People are increasingly aware of the benefits that protein can bring to the body’s general well-being, with a positive impact on bone health and the prevention of premature aging.”

“Another important point is that, as interest in healthy aging continues to grow, the market is adapting to meet this demand. This represents an important moment for the industry, as we see more people prioritizing health and well-being over long term. Collagen, in this context, is part of this trend.”

According to IBGE data, last year compared to 2021, the sector recorded a 2.4% growth in production, which represents a total value of R$3 billion.

According to Euromonitor International, in 2022, the global market for joint and bone health supplements reached the US$10 billion mark, around R$50 billion. There is also a projection of a 20% increase in supplement sales in the United States over the next three years.

In recent years, the dietary supplement market as a whole has experienced remarkable growth, even during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, the trend of high demand has persisted.

According to market research “Food Supplement Consumption Habits”, by Abiad, collagen is widely sought after in Brazil. “Among the variety of dietary supplements available, collagen stood out with a growth in consumption of 167%”, adds Thaise.

Slurry and environmental pressure

A Sheet Last year and this year he was in front of the Rousselot and JBS units that process protein in Presidente Epitácio. In a rural area close to the imposing Paraná River, where both units are practically neighbors, the smell of putrefied corpses announces the arrival of trucks from the most diverse regions of the country, mainly from the north and mid-west.

There are loads of cattle carcasses that park in the “slurry” before gaining authorization to enter the factory. While the dark, highly polluting liquid from putrefying organic matter is dried from the trucks into a local well, drivers coming from Rondônia, the south of Pará, Mato Grosso or the southern neighbor of Mato Grosso, Bataguassu, take hours-long naps and play cards. while they wait their turn, which can take hours and even more than a day.

According to investigative reports from a British pool that involved NGOs, The Guardian newspaper and the ITV News network, tens of thousands of heads of cattle that support this production chain would come from farms involved in deforestation in the Amazon, the Cerrado or even indigenous reserves.

There is pressure from some European parliamentarians to improve product production. Collagen, a by-product of the livestock industry, is not subject to the same traceability standards that European and British legislation provides for other products linked to deforestation and human rights violations, such as meat, soy and palm oil.

Gelita, in response to the report, stated that it was “committed to traceability throughout its supply chain”. “The company uses various technologies and adopts the best market practices. Today, it is possible to state that the raw materials used by Gelita in the manufacture of collagen, manufactured on Brazilian soil, do not come from the Amazon region”, says the note.

According to the company, its most recent Sustainability Report lists “concrete actions to protect the environment and sustainable development”.

A Sheet He tried for almost three months to interview directors of JBS and Rousselot, but received no positive response from their respective press offices.

To the English press, for example, Nestlé, owner of the Vital Proteins brand, reported having contacted its suppliers to further investigate the origin of the products in Brazil. “And that it is taking steps to ensure its products are deforestation-free by 2025.”

Also cited by the British report, JBS reported that its purchases are “fully compatible” with the acquisition and production chain monitoring protocols.