Page 30 - Food&Drink Magazine Aug-Sep 2021

INGREDIENTS
Fourth and fifth generation peanut farmers, Darrin and Ben Rackemann
Peanut popularity: A legume on the rise
Bega head of marketing Matt Gray tells Food & Drink Business nut spreads are one of the most popular categories in the supermarket aisle.
“In the last year alone, the natural peanut butter segment grew 15.6 per cent, with consumers placing a strong focus on health and looking to extract as many positive benefits from the products they consume as possible.
“We introduced the Simply Nuts range in 2019 to cater to that demand, with the products only containing peanuts and a pinch of salt,” Gray says.
In 1H FY21, Simply Nuts doubled its market share to
21 per cent of the natural peanut butter segment while its core peanut butter range holds around 82 per cent of the total core peanut butter market.
For such a dominant player in the market, with
a product that has so few ingredients, it is essential the core ingredient, peanuts, is of the highest quality.
Bega Foods executive general manager Adam McNamara says Australian peanut growers continue to face challenging growing conditions even though this year is expected to be the best in the last five.
“We’re thrilled that we’ve had a strong number of growers who
Not for the faint hearted: Peanut growing regions have been in drought for the last five years.
ABOVE: Peanut pride: This year is expected to be the best harvest in 10 years.
Bega Foods holds unparalled market share when it comes to peanut butter. Kim Berry talks
to fifth generation peanut farmer Ben Rackemann about what it means to produce the main ingredient for one of Australia’s
most loved spreads.
BEGA has had a big year. Its $528 million acquisition of Lion Dairy & Drinks more than doubled the size of the company, its revenue and number of employees. Branded products now account for 80 per cent of the business, compared to
59 per cent pre-acquisition.
The company also saw the completion of two lengthy legal proceedings, both resolved in its favour. In February, the Victorian Supreme Court ruled Bega was permitted to use the Bega trademark on products outside the scope of the licence Fonterra has for Bega branded
cheese and butter products. In June, it was awarded a
$9.25 million settlement from Kraft Heinz Australia over its longstanding dispute regarding Bega rebranding Kraft Peanut Butter products after it bought the Kraft factory from Mondelez in 2017.
Meanwhile, the production line must go on and for that to happen, the ingredients must be supplied.
Bega’s peanut butter portfolio – Bega Peanut Butter and Simply Nuts – accounts for almost 60 per cent of Australia’s peanut butter market.
30 | Food&Drink business | August/September 2021 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au