Rising hemp seed markets in Europe intensifies the demand for certified quality seeds. A new breed, also suitable for organic production, is ready to meet the high demands on both quality and quantity.

The speed of growth of hemp seed producer Møllerup Gods (Mollerup Estate) reflects a demand for quality hemp seeds and seed products in a growing world market. The seeds are grown both organically and conventionally at the estate while none are ever exposed to herbicides or pesticides.

Increasing demand

Hemp seeds from Mollerup Estate are found in a wide range of food products from roasted seeds to salami, and in skin care and drinks products as well, all of them mainly in the estate’s own brand.

However, recent major expansions of the estate’s production of seeds are to target six foreign markets for quality hemp seeds, including seeds for planting. For the sake of quality assurance and production transparency, a demand for locally sourced hemp seeds is rising in European markets that are just beginning to integrate hemp at an industrial level.

The Finola hemp variety is grown all natural using no chemicals and the seeds are fit for organic and conventional farmers alike

A new breed

The obvious need for certifications and approvals of hemp seeds for commercial use restricts the availability of hemp certified for planting. Until recently, certified breeds would come from abroad, but the estate has recently changed that scenario. Succeeding with a new breed “Finola” – especially rich in trans fats and omega-3 acids – and subsequently getting the coveted certification, Mollerup can offer Danish origin hemp seeds for planting to other farmers who want to grow hemp for food.

The Finola hemp variety is grown all natural using no chemicals and the seeds are fit for organic and conventional farmers alike.

Demand is rising for healthier, heart-friendly vegetable oils free of trans fats because these are linked with heart disease. The Danish company Novonesis has developed a safe, environmentally-friendly solution that lets food manufacturers meet the demand.

More than half a million people die globally every year due to heart diseases. A central cause to the deaths from heart disease is related to consumers’ high intake of trans fats found in e.g. processed foods. Trans fats are for example found in products such as margarine, cakes, icing, fried foods, salad dressings, commercially-prepared popcorn and much more. In many countries, consumers eat high levels of trans fats without being aware of the risk of heart disease.

Avoiding trans-fats with enzymes and creating high-quality products

Trans fats are formed when manufacturers use a process called partial hydrogenation where the chemical structure of oil is changed from a liquid form into a more solid shape to give e.g. margarines the correct melting properties, consistency or shelf-stability. Novonesis’ has been ahead of this trend, and its biological solutions can help to achieve all the same qualities and avoid trans fats by using a different process. Also, use of enzymes in this process offer the industry ways to produce in more sustainable ways.

The enzymatic process eliminates the need for chemicals, washing or post-bleaching and produces no wastewater

Interesterification is a process which also modifies the melting point to create an oil that is more suitable for deep frying and at the same time has low saturated fat content. In contrast to partial hydrogenation, the interesterification can be done with chemicals or enzymes that do not produce trans fatty acids and has many advantages.

Healthier, higher yields and better for the environment

Using enzymes in oil production provides manufacturers with a simple, efficient and environmentally-friendly way to produce margarines without trans fats.

Novonesis has developed a lipase (an enzyme), Lipozyme® TL IM, that produces higher-quality oils with no colour changes, low diglycerides, and fewer by-products. The enzymatic process eliminates the need for chemicals, washing or post-bleaching and produces no wastewater.

Authorities looking at trans fats

The WHO has provided guidelines for production of healthier fats with enzymes, and many countries have followed their recommendation. For example, the United States has banned trans fats and as of 2021, no more than two grams of industrially produced trans fatty acids may be used per 100 grams of fat in food on the European market.

Food production has multiple effects on the environment. At the same time, global population growth and consumer demand requires high quality, affordable food as part of a healthy, balanced diet. In OECD-countries poultry consumption has gone up 83% since 1990. With rising global demand there is an urgent need for new solutions to produce more efficiently and with as little impact on the climate as possible.

Increasing efficiency for farmers

In a partnership between Novonesis, one of the world’s leading ingredient companies, and DSM, a Dutch leader in animal nutrition products, a product with a positive impact on the growth of broilers has been developed. The name of the enzymatic solution is Balancius.

Farmers produce 3% more food from the same amount of feed, cutting costs and lowering the environmental impact of food production

The enzyme works by removing bacterial cell debris from the chicken’s gut, enabling farmers to produce 3% more food from the same amount of feed. Considering that up to 70% of a farmer’s total production costs goes towards feed, Balancius can significantly cut costs and lower the environmental impact of food production.

Helping to improve sustainability

If Balancius were used for all broilers in Latin America and North America, where it has been launched, the total greenhouse gas emission savings would be 4.2 million tons of CO2.

Danish know-how and methodology helps developing and consolidating organic farming in thousands of farming families. Knowledge sharing is the key.

Using a knowledge sharing method adapted from a Danish dairy farm context, Danish organic association, Organic Denmark, supports and strengthens organic farming in East Africa. The concept is known as Farmer Family Learning Groups (FFLG) and has been implemented and developed with thousands of participants over a span of years in various projects led by the association through partnerships with local farming associations.

The FFLG method has proven solid and effective in consolidating organic agriculture in farming communities facing a wide range of challenges

Learning by sharing and doing

The FFLGs are professional communities in which farmers share and solve their challenges through knowledge sharing. The interaction and co-working of the farmers is initially facilitated by specially trained staff. Once implemented, the farmer/advisor relationship changes and continues as a sustained everyday multi-stakeholder interaction between the farmers.

The FFLG method has proven solid and effective in consolidating organic agriculture in farming communities facing a wide range of challenges including climate change, food insecurity, and unemployment.

Sparkling Tea is a completely new beverage category. The organic low-/non-alcoholic sparkling drink is based on a blend of different teas rather than grapes. It originated in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has in less than two years made it to more than 15 countries.

The beautiful symbiosis between gastronomy and business

The idea originated when a Danish award-winning sommelier found himself in the controversial situation where wine didn’t complement the dessert they served at the restaurant where he worked. He decided to experiment with various blends of teas and realized a great potential in the ancient ingredient.

Meanwhile, the co-founder of Copenhagen Sparkling Tea was in the middle of a successful career, but with a growing urge to start something on his own. It was therefore a match made in the entrepreneurial heaven, when the two were paired up and launched their first batch of Sparkling Tea on the market in 2017.

teas are brewed under different temperatures and time intervals which creates multiple nuances in the taste and renews the world of gastronomy

The organic low-alcoholic complement

The new beverage category taps into two rapidly rising trends – the organic and the low/non-alcoholic – and have made a firm footprint in both. The organic aspect was a no brainer when creating Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Co. They have since then been awarded a number of prizes such as Best Organic Product 2018 at World’s Largest Organic Trade Fair, BIOFACH, and latest the same prize at Hong Kong’s International Organic Fair, LOHAS, in 2019.

Sparkling Tea is sold in more than 50 countries and found on the menu of over 100 international Michelin restaurants worldwide, due to its new and interesting complexity, as well as the low-/non-alcoholic asset, which finally gives restaurants a non-alcoholic option for food pairing.

A cuvée of tea – available on over 100 Michelin restaurants

The secret to Sparkling Tea lies in the selection and management of multiple tea types in one bottle. Up to 13 teas are brewed under different temperatures and time intervals. This allows each of the teas to play an important role and thereby creating multiple nuances in the taste. Finally, with a small base of either grape juice or white wine resulting in either 0% or 5% ABV.

Driven by curiousness and always exploring how to expand the production of eggs and vegetables, today Axel Månsson A/S is one of the most productive organic farmers in Denmark.

While the conventional vegetables still form a substantial part of the exports, 1500 out of the total 2200 hectares of production by Axel Månsson A/S are certified organic, and the company is pursuing a stated goal of 100 percent organic vegetable production. Starting with the eggs, the company began the conversion to organic production in 1998 working from the belief that the healthiest choice for humans and soil alike must be the production which is sustained without the use of chemicals.

the organic production includes more than 200,000 laying hens and more than 1000 hectares of vegetables

Testing and embracing new technology as well as heavy investments in future possibilities has been a driving force when developing and upscaling the organic production. This includes using robot technology in the fields and co-building a biogas plant to become self-sufficient of organic fertiliser, while also engaging in research for alternative ways to provide local high-protein fodder.

Likewise, a large test field for new varieties and sorts of vegetables is a necessary playground for development together with investing in packaging and cooling facilities that matches the goals of a sound and sustainable business. Today, the organic production includes more than 230,000 egg laying hens and more than 1000 hectares of vegetables.

The Danish chocolate brand, Oialla, creates high-end, delicious chocolate bars that not only taste good but provide a vital business opportunity for native people in the Bolivian jungle where the beans are picked wildly.

The Oialla Chocolate brand was founded in 2010 and won its first international award in 2011. But Oialla is not just about organic high-end chocolate bars. It’s also about simultaneous engagement in making exquisite chocolate bars and changing working and livelihood conditions for the local Bolivian community.

A crucial relationship

The result is organic and pure chocolate made from the wild Beniano beans in a close and depending relationship with the local and indigenous people of the Baures community. Besides obvious and positive benefits for the Bolivian cocoa workers the relationship is crucial for the quality due to its reliance on the initial harvesting and handling of the beans.

It is a good example of the benefits of a value chain in which ethical production is considered a prerequisite to high-end quality

In other words, the close connection between the working conditions among the cocoa workers at the initial stage and the chocolate quality in the final package is a good example of the benefits of a value chain in which ethical production is considered a prerequisite to high-end quality.

The Oialla brand helps lift the quality of the industry with their organic high-end chocolate bars sold to Danish and international top restaurants, while also making positive changes in the cocoa community through measures like education of women, forest management and local employment possibilities.

The absence of chemicals in the organic vegetable production causes a greater need for manual work in the fields – or perhaps a gps-controlled self-driving tractor with an automated hoeing machine?

Organic production has for a long time been a Danish agricultural success story in home and export markets alike. Today, Denmark has the largest organic home-market share of any country in the world. An important part of this story is the ability to upscale production to meet the demands for both variation and attractive prices without neither compromising the organic values nor the product quality.

Efficiency is essential

When it comes to organic free-range vegetable production, labour-intensity in the fields is an obvious challenge and unit cost issue. Mechanical weeding has almost entirely replaced the handheld hoe, but the need for efficiency and optimisation remains to reduce pressure on the soil from heavy machinery and to increase the coverage of weeding in a certain timespan.

Mounted to a gps-navigated tractor it makes a futuristic sight in the organic field, working steadily and ruler-straight like only a robot is capable of

A great contribution is the technological innovation within automated mechanical weeding. The Robovator is a prime example. Mounted to a gps-navigated tractor it makes a futuristic sight in the organic field, working steadily and ruler-straight like only a robot is capable of.

Vision-based hoeing

The key is vision-based hoeing using special plant detection cameras for each row of plants. Low in weight and power consumption, the Robovator works with mechanical or even thermal weeding depending on the actual crop, workable in the dark and easily controlled by a smartphone.

An increasing demand for organic products in domestic and foreign markets is challenged by a scarcity of approved fertilisers for certified organic vegetable production. Organic biogas helps fill out the gap.

Biogas is made from degradable waste, garbage, and by-products from private households, industry and agriculture. But the biogas production has more functions than merely being a renewable energy source based on a range of sources of waste in society.

Extending the value chain

The by-product – leftovers from the degassing process at the biogas plants – are used as a green fertiliser in agriculture. This way, the biogas production extends the existing value chains in which slurry from animal husbandry is mixed with other degradable matter, degassed for energy production, and then returned to the farms as a fertiliser far more effective than its untreated original.

Slurry from animal husbandry is mixed with other degradable matter, degassed for energy production, and then returned to the farms as a fertiliser far more effective than its untreated original

First organic biogas

This is a very welcome by-product, especially for organic vegetable production which is facing a scarcity of approved organic fertilisers. To help fill out this gap, in 2018 biogas company Nature Energy constructed the first Danish biogas plant to blend waste from appointed sources in a mix that favors waste from primarily organic certified suppliers.

The degassed, highly effective fertiliser can then be returned to the local organic vegetable production, thus making an interesting perspective of an important contribution the future of organic agriculture.

A new partnership between agro tech company Cordulus and agribusiness company Danish Agro will provide farmers with hyper local and exact weather data for optimising yield. The weather station from Cordulus is the next big thing in agro technology.

Even in a technologically advanced food industry, the weather has an immense impact on agricultural production. For example, in processes such as harvesting and sowing. Mother nature simply has the last word. But better monitoring of local weather can give farmers the possibility to distribute their time and resources better, optimising yields from the fields. Cordulus, an agro tech startup, has partnered with Danish Agro to distribute their smart weather stations. The specs of the weather station are based on a close collaboration between Cordulus and their customers: the farmers.

Farming surveillance

The concept is simple. A weather station – a pole with some electronical hardware on – is easily installed in the field. From there, it sends data about rainfall, soil temperature, air temperature, wind speed, humidity and much more to an app every 10^th minute. The cost is subscription based, so farmers are ensured support and upgrades.

The data is vital in optimising farming. Weather is actually much more local than most people think. When it’s raining near the farmer’s house, it might still be suitable harvesting weather out on the field. It’s just not visible from the house. Denmark, for example, had a lot of rainfall in 2017. Here, better weather data would have proven useful to micromanage the fields, wherever the soil was suitable to be worked despite the weather.

Data is sent every 10 minutes about rainfall, soil temperature, air temperature, wind speed, humidity and more which optimises farming

Collaboration for the best solutions

Partnering with Danish Agro can help the small company by tapping into the customer-base of one of Denmark’s largest agribusiness companies. The cooperation between a small, agile startup and a large established company can lead to weather data of a quality yet unrivalled for Danish farmers.

There are a lot of interesting projects in the pipeline of Cordulus. But one of the dreams is to offer the possibility to share weather data between the farmers’ respective weather stations. Much like the open source movement in the software industry. And farmers are demanding this kind of knowledge sharing, because it is mutually beneficial.

The case of the weather station is in many respects a tale of cooperation. This is very characteristic of the Danish food cluster and one of the ways Danish food innovations and solutions push the boundaries in the international food industry.

Read more about Cordulus and Danish Agro