Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. announced a binding term sheet agreement with Arista Cereal Technologies and Bay State Milling Company for commercialization of its high fiber resistant starch wheat in key wheat markets, including North America, Europe and parts of Asia.
Under the terms of the binding agreement, Bay State Milling will become the exclusive commercial partner for Arcadia’shigh fiber wheat in North America under Bay State Milling’s HealthSense brand portfolio, while Arista receives exclusive rights under Arcadia’s intellectual property in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan and South Korea.
Arcadia will continue to market its high fiber wheat under its GoodWheat portfolio of specialty wheat ingredients in other international markets. The agreement resolves an intellectual property dispute between the three companies over Arcadia’s high fiber wheat. The agreement earns Arcadia royalties for sales of its wheat varieties in North America by Bay State Milling, plus additional considerations.
“We are pleased to have entered into an agreement with Arista and Bay State Milling that will accelerate commercialization of our high fiber wheat in key wheat markets, and capture revenue in 2019 and beyond,” says Raj Ketkar, president and CEO of Arcadia Biosciences. “Bay State Milling is an excellent partner for North America, bringing its strengths in milling, identity preserved supply chains and technical support of customer food companies.”
“We continue to see tremendous opportunity for high fiber wheat flour, particularly in the United States, where consumers are increasingly mindful about the nutrition their food delivers,” says Peter Levangie, president and CEO of Bay State Milling. “As a result, our customers, food manufacturers, also are looking for ingredients with added nutritional value from natural sources. We are excited to add Arcadia’s high fiber wheat to the HealthSense brand and bring it to customers to help close the fiber gap and improve consumer health in North America.”
Eric Vaschalde, CEO of Arista Cereal Technologies, adds, “We are pleased to have reached an agreement that resolves our ongoing patent dispute and puts our focus on successfully bringing high fiber wheat to market across our wide platform. After decades of research and development, Arista focused its initial market development in North Americawith its partner, Bay State Milling. This agreement not only bolsters Bay State Milling’s commercial opportunities, but it also enhances the global intellectual property for all parties to the agreement.”
Arcadia’s high fiber wheat delivers multiple times the resistant starch as traditional wheat and significantly higher amounts of dietary fiber than traditional wheat flour. Because of its high fiber content, consumer product goods companies, food manufacturers and food service retailers can reduce the need to add other sources of fiber in their formulation and simplify their ingredient labels.
In 2015, the global flour market was valued at $200 billion and is estimated to reach a value of $270 billion by 2022. The United States Department of Agriculture reported the total value of wheat production in the U.S. was $9.7 billion for 2018. Wheat contributes about 20 percent of the total dietary calories and proteins worldwide, according to a 2013 paper published in Food Security. Arcadia’s high fiber wheat can provide additional, proven health benefits for consumers who want to continue to enjoy the wheat-based foods they love.
