With Cargill as your global sweetener ingredient source, you are better able to manage costs by navigating and adapting your products to commodity market changes

Food and beverage manufacturers are navigating volatile commodity markets. Price volatility can be blamed on weather, politics or simply increased demand. With growing populations and growing per capita consumption in developing countries, demand for ingredients continues to increase. Food and beverage companies that are open to new sourcing ideas for their ingredients will capitalize on opportunities. By pursuing a flexible global ingredient sourcing model with Cargill for sweeteners, manufacturers can potentially find significant savings.

According to a recent survey of R&D strategies at food and beverage manufacturers from foodprocessing.com, “contributing to cost reduction” is the second most important concern for two years in a row, with only “food safety” as a greater concern. A KPMG survey of Food and Beverage Executives showed their biggest concern, by a long shot, to be “discounts driven by market competition.”  Costs are a huge concern for the food industry.

Driving efficiencies

Sourcing sweeteners with Cargill can drive significant efficiencies. Cargill’s technical teams work with customers to develop multiple formulas using different sweeteners for the same final product.  These different formulas take into consideration taste, texture, nutritional priorities as well as commodity prices.   

With sweeteners, Cargill can help you source according to your global needs and market fluctuations. Most people wouldn’t think that sourcing corn sweeteners from Iowa into Australia would be a cost efficient model.  However, if the price of tapioca-based sweeteners goes up dramatically and corn sweetener prices remain stable, it might make sense to source from Iowa into Australia, especially considering Cargill’s supply chain efficiencies. Simply swap your sweetener ingredient purchases from the tapioca sweetener formula for the approved corn sweetener formula.

With some up-front product formulation work, market flexible sourcing solutions for sweeteners can drive significant cost savings. Formulations using a variety of sweeteners will need to be approved and market-ready in advance so you can adapt to rapid market changes.  Having the flexibility of switching between sweeteners in your product can be a source of considerable savings.

Impact on your bottom line

Simple means for achieving cost reduction objectives can often be overlooked. Companies have pursued Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma initiatives to achieve production efficiencies; which have proven to be very successful. However, if you are looking to manage costs without implementing enormous organizational changes, consider a more flexible global ingredient sourcing approach to accommodate commodity market fluctuations. Flexible sourcing with Cargill could have a substantial impact on your bottom line.