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As more and more consumers are beginning to prefer low-sugar food & beverage products, companies are quickly searching for a natural alternative. Of all the candidates, the popularity of stevia—a diabetes-preventing plant—is rapidly rising. SteviaFarms Co., Ltd., a stevia company, is currently cultivating a breed of stevia called NewStevia in four different locations around the Southeast Asian region. Well known to be richer in nutrients and sweeter than other breeds, NewStevia is proving to be SteviaFarms’ largest competitive advantage in its mission to shift the stevia market’s original paradigm. The following parts of this article is based on an interview with Mr. Song, the founder of SteviaFarms 

Changes in the “Sweet” Market… Rise of Stevia, the Natural Sweetener

Stevia (stevia rebaudiana) is a South American perennial asteraceae plant that has been getting the global spotlight as a natural sweetener. Due to its leaves being plentiful in stevioside, a sweetener, stevia is known to be 250~300 times sweeter than sugar and is under development as its healthy alternative. Despite its sweetness, the plant contains nearly zero calories and does not affect the blood sugar levels of its consumer, making it one of the most effective methods of preventing diabetes. Not only so, stevia is known to have other major health-related benefits (e.g., antioxidant effects, prevention of osteoporosis and other liver/blood vessel/skin/immunity related diseases). Due to such reasons, stevia is quickly substituting sugar as the key ingredient of diverse food & beverage, beauty, and medicinal products. With the WHO, FDA, and EU approving it a safe sugar substitute, the demand for stevia is rising. As a matter of fact, the growth of the stevia market was recorded to be 8.5% in 2017. The number is now 12%, showing an explosive growth speed. As the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing more people into chasing a healthier lifestyle, the demand for stevia is only forecasted to increase in the near future.

 A New Breed of Stevia “NewStevia,” Successful Attempt at Creating a Natural Sweet Flavor

Since 2017, SteviaFarms Co., Ltd. has efforted to pioneer through the relatively untapped stevia market. According to the founding members of SteviaFarms, they were sure the demand for stevia would increase in the future as the number of diabetes patients and consumer preference for wellbeing products were steeply rising around the world. The breed of stevia SteviaFarms is currently cultivating and using in their products, NewStevia, is known to be sweeter and richer in nutrients than other breeds. In addition, due to its high sweetness, the so called “plant flavor” that other stevia breeds have is almost nonexistent in NewStevia. The writer has personally tasted NewStevia and can testify that this is an accurate description of NewStevia; instead of the plant flavor, a subtle sweet flavor welcomed me and remained long after the consuming it. NewStevia’s sweetness is not its only differentiating factor. In addition to it, it is richer in healthy nutrients like linoleic acid and beta-carotene.

A Korean Stevia Breed Recognized in Southeast Asia for its Excellence

In May of 2018, SteviaFarms contacted related government agencies of seven different Southeast Asian nations to scout optimal cultivation locations and being trial cultivations. The entire business operation was worth approximately five million USD. Looking back on this process, the founder of SteviaFarms, Mr. Song said the following: “The first three years of SteviaFarms was all about endurance. It was an extremely tiring process of learning cultivation techniques and getting cultivation rights from all around Southeast Asia. Especially so because cultivation techniques varied by region, and therefore the entire process took a lot of trial and error to perfect.” Currently, SteviaFarms is cultivating stevia on roughly 3,000-acre sites located in Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Many of which welcome SteviaFarms with open arms. This is more noticeable in Indonesia where the Agricultural Minister personally invited the founding members of SteviaFarms and gave them exclusive cultivation rights in Indonesia. This is because SteviaFarms contributes to the Southeast Asian countries’ economies by providing stable jobs and improving working conditions of farmers. This is the first time a South Korean company has so deeply collaborated with foreign governments and pioneer the rather untapped stevia market. The astonishing accomplishments made by SteviaFarms can all be credited to the restless past four years SteviaFarms has spent to research and develop a stable stevia business model.

FDA Approvals on Six Stevia Beverage Products… Enjoying a Sweet Flavor in a Healthy Manner

SteviaFarms is currently focused on stabilizing the cultivation process in the ASEAN region. It also launched a subsidiary company called “NewStevia,” to self-manufacture stevia-based products and lead the market to provide consumers with a truly healthy sweet flavor. Through its subsidiary, SteviaFarms launched beverage series composed of six separate flavors. They were all sweetened using stevia only. The six flavors are as follows: ginger flavored beauty drink (Ginger), a natural aloe flavor (Aloe Plus), collagen filled beauty drink (Pretty Q), a sports drink (Energetic), and lemon and peach flavored nano-calcium drink (Nano-Calcium). Of the six separate flavors, the nano-calcium beverages have been getting the most attention as they have been created through a collaboration with Apexel—a company with FDA approvals on its nano-calcium technology. Through the collaboration, NewStevia succeeded in putting 180mg of nano-calcium per bottle in its products. According the Director Lee, “NewStevia drinks are completely artificial sweetener free. We are confident that our products are of high quality and are sheer innovations in the beverage market. This is well demonstrated in all of our six beverages receiving FDA approvals.”  

The Expansion of Demands for Low-sugar Products… Stevia Aims to Contribute to the Wellbeing of the World 

due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcibly pushing people into desiring a healthier lifestyle. SteviaFarms aims to grow along this new trend by providing consumers with a truly “sweet but healthy” flavor and contribute to the wellbeing of consumers around the globe. According to SteviaFarms representatives, stevia-based products are helpful in preventing diabetes, obesity, and many more common health-related risks. SteviaFarms is currently planning to launch stevia teabags, sugar-free ice cream, dried stevia leaves, stevia powders, stevia concentrates, and so on. SteviaFarms’ Vice President, Jaemin Yoo, added “We will try our best to make sure consumers understand and view the NewStevia brand as a trustworthy provider of a healthier lifestyle. That is why we only concentrate on cultivating and using the best of the best raw materials and manufacturing high quality stevia-based products.” As Mr. Yoo’s statement claims, NewStevia products’ qualities are quickly grabbing the attention of consumers and distributors in the US, Russia, Singapore, and so on. As so, SteviaFarms’ annual revenue is expected to steeply rise throughout this year. According to Junghoon Song, the CEO of SteviaFarms, SteviaFarms plans to “distribute high quality stevia-based products to contribute to and lead the growth of the stevia market.” SteviaFarms has received the ISO90001 (Quality Management System) and ISO14001 (Environment Management System) certifications in the past. In June of last year, the company also signed an MOU with a new media consultancy firm, Uzurocks to more effectively promote stevia products. Through the MOU, the partnering companies plan to develop contents related to stevia, brand and market NewStevia, promote the health-related benefits of stevia consumption, and contribute to the growth of the South Korean stevia market.

Infinite Growth Forecasted

SteviaFarms plans to expand the size of its total cultivation site to approximately 817 acres by the year 2022. By 2025, the company plans to control over 17,971 acres. As mentioned before, the company already has the exclusive cultivation rights in Indonesia and is awaiting to sign an exclusive rights contract with the Cambodian government as well. Song emphasized “The goal of this business lies in providing the world with a healthier alternative to sugar. We have a strong belief that SteviaFarms can grow to be a business that can promote South Korea on the global stage. We plan to possess 10% of the total market share in the future. Until then, we will continue to give it our best to reach the average consumers with high quality products.”

Source: Sisa News Times (http://www.sisanewstime.co.kr)