Plandai Biotechnology, a producer of highly bioavailable botanical extracts, today announced a preliminary agreement with ZZ2, a private farming conglomerate in Southern Africa and the largest producer of fresh tomatoes in the continent of Africa. Based on a long-standing working relationship, Dunn Roman Holdings Africa (Pty) Limited, a subsidiary of Plandai, will, under a new contract, acquire tomato waste from ZZ2 which will be processed to recover highly bioavailable antioxidants using the company’s exclusive Hydrodynamic Extraction System.
Plandai Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Roger Duffield, commented, “As with green tea catechin extract, our hydrodynamic system converts the tomato carotenoid isomers into a highly bioavailable product. This partnership with ZZ2 is especially advantageous because it gives us an extremely inexpensive and readily available source material throughout the year. With an initial agreement to acquire 30 tons of tomato waste per day, we can yield substantial volumes of carotenoids (lycopene, phytoene and phytofluene). With the current market price for even poorly-absorbed lycopene at $3,000/kg, this opportunity could add in excess of $700,000 in monthly revenues.
Discussing the timing of commencing production of these carotenoids, Mr. Duffield added, “A huge portion of our prior research has been in this field and has already been validated through a USDA study. As shown in the recent publication by Dr. Ishida in Food Chemistry—Effects of a Hydrodynamic Process on Extraction of Carotenoids from Tomato—Plandai’s extraction process has already demonstrated the ability to deliver highly bioavailable carotenoids in numerous studies undertaken in conjunction with the California tomato processing industry and the USDA. In addition, unlike our green tea catechin extract, there will be no delay in getting raw materials ready for extraction. ZZ2 has an ample and ready supply of tomato waste available 365 days a year. We therefore anticipate that the tomato carotenoid extracts could actually come to market well ahead of our green tea gallate extract and bring us one step closer to becoming the world’s largest supplier of highly bioavailable botanical extracts from live plant materials.”
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