Soy burgers to hit taste buds

Veggie burger pioneer Gardenburger is to introduce three new soy-based products - Country Fried Chik'n with Creamy Pepper Gravy, Meatless Sweet & Sour Pork and Buffalo Chik'n Wings. Each serving contains less than 200 calories, and each 10oz (283g) box contains two servings at a suggested retail price of $3.50.

Founded in 1985, Gardenburger pioneered the original meatless patty. The company distributes its meatless products to more than 35,000 foodservice outlets in the US and Canada. Retail customers include more than 30,000 grocery, natural food and club stores. The Portland, Oregon company has 185 people.

Nanotechnology - UK falling behind learning curve

BRIEFLY

Denmark’s Carlsberg Breweries is to take a 51% share of Serbian brewery Pivara Celarevo in a private placement and will also make a public offer for the outstanding shares in a deal valuing the company at 53m euros. Pivara Celarevo is the third largest brewery in Serbia with a capacity of 1.3m hl. In 2002, Pivara Celarevo had a turnover of 23m euros, an operating profit 5.6m euros and sold 780,000 hl beer, giving it a 15% market share.

German chemicals company BASF is to end its relationship with DSM for feed enzymes, but will continue to pursue the market for itself.

US-based oilseed firm Bunge’s Indian subsidiary, Gee Pee Ceval Proteins and Investment, has bought the India-based assets of Prestige Foods Limited. The assets acquired include an oilseed processing unit with an integrated vegetable oil refinery and packaging facility and production capacity of 150 tons per day of refined oil and 100 tons per day of vanaspati, a butter substitute used in India. This acquisition is part of Bunge's continuing expansion in the Indian oilseed processing market.  In August it bought Hindustan Lever's edible oils business. 

Nanotechnology

UK falling behind learning curve

Manufacturing’s contribution to the UK’s GDP has shrunk from 21% in 1997 to 17% today, reports the UK’s Confederation of British Industry (CBI). This means it is losing ground against other industrialised nations, but its greatest threat is likely to come from China and India, says CBI leader Digby Jones.

The British Design Council also castigates British managers for not adopting leading edge technologies such as nanotechnology. Writing in its latest bulletin, the council says a recent survey by the Institution of Electronic Engineers in 2002, only 27% of businesses thought that nanotechnology showed more potential for innovation than microelectronics and IT.

“Forget 'grey goo' and evil, self-replicating robots,” it says. “The real danger from nanotechnology will be the failure of UK businesses to realise its potential. And it's not just money that's needed, but a new way of commercialising the products.”

The UK Department of Trade and Industry reckons the global market for nanotechnology products could reach GBP700bn by 2010. But several chief executives the council spoke to are not optimistic about how of that will come to the UK. Kevin Matthews, CEO of nanoparticle manufacturer Oxonica, says “We have the skills base, the research base and the infrastructure but when it comes to customers for the technology we're lagging behind Germany, Japan and the US.”

He blames the innate conservativeness of the supply chains, a view echoed by Malcolm Wilkinson, managing director of technology consultancy Technology for Industry. “Many companies are not aware of the disruptive effect these technologies could have on their businesses in the very near future.”

Tim Harper, CEO of nanotechnology consultancy Cientifica points to the impact of IT on the US economy and military capability. “Nanotechnology is an even more fundamental technology than IT. Not only does it have the ability to shift the balance of military power but also affect the global balance of power in the energy markets,” he claims.

Harper reckons over half the European nanotechnology businesses are based in Germany because the plastics and chemicals industries are so established there. But the rest come to the UK because of the availability of venture capital money.

But the council’s business development manager Ellie Runcie reckons the nanotech start-ups don’t often check market demand. “What a research unit needs is a hot intellectual property process and the application of design. Rather than using all its resources on building a business it should get money from licensing and use design techniques to find the right markets for its intellectual property.”

But that is likely to perpetuate the pattern whereby the British create but do not exploit their intellectual property. A new booklet published by the CBI shows the government has made the manufacturing situation worse because of the build-up of regulation, increases in business taxation and failure to improve transport. This leads to low levels of investment and discourages firms from developing the high-value products and processes that command premium prices in global markets, it says. The CBI report recommends firms to invest in technology, capital stock, R & D, innovation, marketing, skills and design. It also calls on the government to step up support for R&D, to encourage job creation and to help exporters.

Euro view

Meanwhile, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), set up to coordinate basic research of benefit to EU members, shows a drop in the value of contracts signed for paid research. Earnings went from 34.8m euros in 2001 to 21.3m euros in 2002. This was the result of the Fifth Framework Programme ending, it says. However, the JRC’s budget was steady at 250m euros.

The Sixth Framework Programme, which started earlier this year, has a budget of 16.27bn euros over five years. Moreover, the EC’s research commissioner Philippe Busquin is trying hard to persuade governments to raise R&D spending to 3% of GDP to compete with the US and Japan, both of which spend more. Given that the euro area may move into full-blown recession and the present impasse over various trade issues, this seems unlikely in the short term.

Sixth framework programme for RTD and demonstration activities