CoryPro Ingredients—a US startup developing high-value proteins from the byproducts of guar gum production—has signed an agreement with Mexican guar gum producer Polymerals to establish a new guar protein processing facility in Torreón, Mexico.
The agreement provides a framework for investment, construction, and long-term collaboration, with Polymerals contributing feedstock, land and infrastructure and CoryPro providing proprietary technology and commercialization.
“This agreement marks a pivotal step in CoryPro’s strategy to introduce upcycled, scalable and economical cluster bean [guar bean] protein ingredients to the global market,” said CoryPro CEO Robert Beausire, a food industry veteran specializing in selling and marketing protein ingredients.
The parties expect to finalize definitive agreements following further engineering and investment planning, said Beausire, who is seeking $2 million in seed funding. However, $1m would enable production of 10 tons of concentrate for customer sampling and limited launch, a GRAS submission to the FDA, further IP work, customer engagement to secure letters of intent, and a full engineering plan for the Mexico facility.
He told AgFunderNews: “We’d then need to raise for the facility and ongoing operations. However, this plant is relatively low cost compared to others and would be very profitable. The relationship with Polymerals helps reduce the capital needs.”
‘A clean, neutral flavor’
While food companies have been pitched every kind of protein under the sun in recent years, guar protein can deliver a clean-tasting option at a more affordable and consistent price, claimed Beausire.
According to CoryPro, three million tons of guar beans (also known as cluster beans) are processed annually to produce guar gum, a popular thickener, stabilizer, and emulsifier in packaged foods. But the protein-rich meal left over tends to go into low-value animal feed markets.
The benefits of developing higher-value protein concentrates and isolates for human food applications are clear, said Beausire. First, guar meal is high in clean-tasting protein (55%), but just as importantly, there is already a high-value market for the primary ingredient in the beans, guar gum, so CoryPro doesn’t have to worry about monetizing that to make the economics of guar protein production add up.
By contrast, for firms making ingredients from mung beans, peas, chickpeas and faba beans, the protein is the target ingredient, and the byproducts (starch and fibers) are not especially valuable, he pointed out.
Guar bean meal costs, meanwhile, are determined by the commodity price for defatted soybean meal, noted Beausire.
“With these other plant proteins, if there is a drought in Canada or something like that, they get directly affected, and the price goes up. Guar survives well in dry conditions, but even if something impacts the crop, the price of guar gum goes up, but the price of the protein meal is still pegged to defatted soy meal, so it takes out some of the variability out of the market.”
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