PRESENTS

Stevia is a perennial shrub, indigenous to the northern regions of South America. Stevia is still found growing wild in the highlands of the Amambay and Iguacu districts (a border area between Brazil and Paraguay)

For hundreds of years, indigenous peoples in Brazil and Paraguay have used the leaves of Stevia as a sweetener.

In 1931, two French scientists, M. Bridel and R Lavielle isolated the glycosides that give stevia its sweet taste

O

CO

R1

H

H

H3C

H3C CH2

R2

O

O

CO

R1

H

H

H3C

H3C CH2

R2

O

These compounds are 250–300 times sweeter than ordinary table sugar.

Use of stevioside may be a very important tool for nutritional management by lowering carbohydrate intake, specially intake of “Empty Calories” through refined sugar.

Thus, stevioside offers a “Natural” solution for food intake related obesity.

250g sugar

1g Stevioside

1040 Calories

No Calories

Is equivalent to

Pure Stevioside is too intensely sweet to be used directly for sweetening anything.

A diluted preparation (1-2%) can be safely used for sweetening hot beverages like tea or coffee

Use of stevioside lowers the calorie content of these foods and makes it suitable for the diabetics and dieting people

Bakery and confectionary

products.

ThermostabilityCompatibility with

frozen food

Indian cooking

Compatibility with added colour and

flavour

Indian sweets

Ice-cream, mousses and shakes

STEVIOSIDE

Stevioside Can be used a sweetening agent for many pharmaceutical preparations, to make them suitable for diabetic and dieting patients. It is compatible with most of the ingredients used in OTC medicines. It can be used in oral liquids as well in chewable tablets.

Plaque forming microbes do not thrive in the presence of the nonnutritive stevia constituents. This fact, combined with the naturally sweet flavor of stevioside, makes it a suitable ingredient for mouthwashes and toothpastes.

Now, commercial cultivation of Stevia is

practiced in many countries

Today, stevia is cultivated and used in China, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and part of South America (Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay)

Stevioside is now available in different dilutions (97% to 1%) both in bulk and in retail quantities.

Coca Cola partnered with Cargill to develop their stevioside brand

“Truvia”

Coca cola now sweeten their “Sprite Green” and “Odwalla” Juice Drink with Stevioside

Coca-Cola’s Glaceau VitaminWater 10 is sweetened with stevioside and erythritol with only 10 calories per serving

Pepsico partnered with Whole Earth Sweetener Co. to develop their “Purevia” brand

Pepsico now sweeten their “SoBe Lifewater” brand soft drinks with Stevioside

PepsiCo’s Tropicana Trop50 Orange Juice is sweetened by stevioside

Zevia brand carbonated soft drinks27% market share in all natural beverage sector

47% contribution in sector growth

Lipton Peach Mango Flavoured Green Tea, is sweetened with stevioside.

Launched in January 2010 – cumulative sales $820,000 on less than 20% distribution

Kraft Foods’ Crystal Light Pure Fitness reduced calorie drink is sweetened with stevioside

Launched December 2009, cumulative sales of $3.7m to date on just over 50% distribution

Wisdom Natural Brands™1203 W. San Pedro St.Gilbert, AZ 85233480-921-1373 1-800-899-9908

SweetLeaf is one of the major brand of Stevioside based stand-alone sweetener in US market

Villars Maitre Chocolatier  Fribourg, Switzerland

Launched Dark Chocolate sweetened with Stevioside in 2009 and received very good response

Breizh Cola, "the cola of Brittany", is distributed by Phare Ouest and manufactured by Lancelot Brewery in France

Last March Breizh Cola launched a cola with stevia

Coca-Cola France has reformulated Fanta Still with stevia only three months after the French government approved a form of the natural sweetener.

Anubhav Biotech Limited is the largest Stevioside extraction unit in India and their product has been launched under the brand name “Steviose””

Dr. Shugar from Sanat Products Ltd.

SoSweet from Herboveda India

Bestevia from Lifecare Neuro Products Ltd.

GREEN GOLD from Stanpack Pharma

Gwiser fromGwiser Biotec India

Stugar from Naturell (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Hmmm……………..

May be someday !!

Anubhav already started contract farming of Stevia in North East India and established about 250 acre of farming in Mizoram.

Anubhav Nursery in Jalpaiguri

At present globally 80,000 acres are covered under Stevia cultivation, of which China accounts for a major chunk of 75%.

In the last three years, the Indian farmers have also started taking up Stevia cultivation following large demand for non sugar based sweetener for the growing anti diabetic market.

Stevia prefers -

1. Upland areas in sub-tropical climate.

2. Lightly textured, well-drained soil to which high organic matter. 

3. Consistently moist but not wet soil.

4. A soil pH range of 6.5-7.5.

Climatic Conditions

Paraguay South Bhutan (Home of Stevia)

Minimum 14oC 15oC Temperature

Maximum 35oC 30oCTemperature

Rainfall 1500 m 1500-2500mm

Pesticide residues in Stevia leaves is absolutely undesirable as they contaminate the finished product and purification is not economically feasible.

Farming in Bhutan is largely traditional with minimal use of pesticides and fertilizers.

Bhutanese environment is least polluted and farm produces are not expected to contain any pesticide residue.

Application of chemical fertilizers has always have adverse effect on stevia leaf quality which, in turn, adversely affects the stevioside production economics.

Bhutan traditionally follows organic farming.

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MoAF) officially launched the national policy for organic farming in Bhutan 2007.

Bhutan needs development policies are inclusive and not exploitive. Thus sustainability is stressed in all actions.

• Stevia is not a input intensive crop • It does not reported to have any environmental adverse

effects. • It does not attract any specific pest • It does not compete with indigenous flora.

Thus, sustainability is an essential criteria for stevia farming.

Agriculture is the backbone of the economy which contributes about 33% of the GDP and about 70% of the population depend on it for livelihood.

Stevia, being a high value low volume cash crop and a foreign exchange earner, will help immensely in increasing revenue per unit land area and will have positive impact on balance of trade especially with India.

Artemisinin from Artemisia annuata

Global demand for Artemisia based medicines has increased dramatically in recent years because the malaria parasite has developed resistance to traditional single-drug treatments such as chloroquine. A shortage of artemisinin has arisen, leading to an increase in its price of up to five-fold since 2004.

In May 2004 when the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) shifted financial support to qualified countries from chloroquine or sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine therapy to an Artemisinin combination therapy for treatment of malaria

Artemisia has been used by Chinese herbalists for more than a thousand years in the treatment of many illnesses, such as skin diseases and malaria. Artemisinin and its derivatives are a group of drugs that possess the most rapid action of all current drugs against falciparum malaria.

Uses

As an effective drug against chloroquine resistant falciperum maleria.

Wild Artemisia grows in large areas in Bhutan which can be commercially exploited for artemisinin extraction. Thus, it is a very potential underutilized bio-resource

• To assess the artemisinin profile of wild indigenous Artemisia plants collected from different populations in Bhutan.

• Assessment of possibility of commercial exploitation of indigenous Artemisia plants on the basis of artemisinin content.

ABL has undertaken a collaborative work with MoAF, RNRDC and NBC for assessment of commercial potentiality of Bhutanese Artemisia with the following objectives in the first phase

Product Range

Fresh graded and sorted fruits in innovative packaging like:Modified Atmosphere PackagingPolyamide-polyethylene Vacuum Shrink Pouch Packaging.Vacuum Blister Packaging under Private Label.Retractable Film Packaging for Bananas.Fruits coated with edible films.

Anubhav Food Processing Ltd. is setting up a state of the art organic fresh fruit packaging facility for catering the increasing demand in this sector. The unit is being established in the North Bengal.

Product Range

Preservative free pulp and juices concentrated by reverse osmosis and pasteurized by HTST process.

Juices and pulps are high pressure homogenized to prevent solid separation and chill-proofed.

Seed out Kiwi Fruit puree and spray dried powder

Spray dried banana powder and preservative free banana puree

Freeze Dried Fruit Products and Gamma Irradiated fruit products

AFPL will install a modern modified atmosphere packaging line and a vacuum packaging line. AFPL is also planning to have its own gamma irradiation unit for chemical preservative free preservation of fruits and vegetables.

Mandarin Orange

Passion Fruit

Green Apple

Golden Delicious

Apple

Kiwi Fruit

Grand Naine

Banana

Queen and Kew

Pineapple

AFPL has already identified markets for a group of organic fruits in domestic as well as overseas market.

Already a credible source for fruits and vegetables without chemical contamination for its long history of traditional organic farming and favourable national policy.

Bhutan can go for further value addition by reformulating some its processed fruit and vegetable products using only natural additives

Bhutan Has the potentiality of achieving market leadership in absolute “Natural” products

Case Study - Apple

Bangladesh is the largest importer.

Bangladesh demands apples of small to medium size only, which results in huge rejects of the common varieties like the Delicious group.

There are no markets for the large size fruit of improved Japanese varieties like Fuji, Sekaiichii and Mutsu.

There is a growing concern among the growers of the large sized apples, and exploration of alternative markets in the region is necessary.

There is an immense scope of mutually benefiting collaboration between the horticulture sector of Bhutan and AFPL.

Identified areas of collaboration

Contract farming of organic fruits and vegetables in Bhutan under long term buyback agreement from AFPL

Getting the produces certified as organic by competent authorities

Setting up of cold chain logistics upto the packaging unit in North Bengal

AFPL obtained operating license for 11 cold storage facilities and several refrigerated vehicles from West Bengal State Marketing Board.

The infrastructure has already been created by the Marketing Board and it is leased out to AFPL for commercial utilization.

Most of the storage facilities are in North Bengal and it may offer immense benefit in India Bhutan fresh product trade.

Locations of the multipurpose cold storage units

District – Coochbehar (5 units)Chandmarihat, Ranirhat, Dinhata, Toofanganj, Nishiganj

District – Jalpaiguri (1 unit)Barobisha

District – Darjeeling(1 unit)Siliguri

District – Malda (1 unit)Samsi

District – Hoogly (1 unit)Sheoraphully

District – Burdwan 1 unit)Kalna, atwa

AFPL also arranged for an infrastructure from WBSMB for retail marketing fresh and processed food products and thus will have its own large-scale outlet along with bulk packaging for other companies and co-branding.