The Christmas peak is as good as over at Sophyn Greens. This Dutch company has been offering its vegetable pastes for about a year and sees great potential, mainly in Germany and Scandinavia. "The Netherlands obviously remains a big market for us, but we find that those regions are slightly more receptive to healthy vegetable alternatives," begins Linsie Meijer, Sophyn Greens' founder.
Linsie got the idea for the vegetable pasta, Sophini, when she began working with residual streams while working in the fruit and vegetable sector. She soon began processing those into pasta. "It goes from unprocessed vegetables to a puree, which we then add to the pasta dough."
"So, 35% of Sophini pasta comprises fresh vegetables. That's roughly a handful. It's not meant to replace your daily vegetable needs completely. It supplements those. We eat far too few fruits and vegetables, after all. This pasta lets you be subconsciously healthy and encourages you to work more with vegetables," says Linsie.
"Initially, we had to figure out what we wanted and how to best reach consumers. We've really gotten stuck in since last August. The product's already earned us nominations for the top three innovative products at the Nordic Food Fair and 'Best Practice' at the National Fruit and Vegetable Congress. We just experienced our first big Christmas rush. That peaks somewhat earlier for us than in fresh produce. We work a lot with Christmas packages, which everyone's preparing now."
Developing projects with partners
Sophyn's assortment is currently made up of carrot, spinach, beet, and parsnip pasta. "We recently delivered a tomato-basil variety, too. About 95% of the red beets and parsnips now come from residual streams, which is fantastic. That's, naturally, only when they're in season."
"As soon as they're unavailable in the Netherlands, there are no residual streams either. We use fresh-frozen product for the spinach pasta, and carrots are still somewhat sporadic from residual streams. We want to increasingly expand that, but production depends on a constant supply," explains Linsie.
"We, thus, like contacting suppliers in that regard, with whom we can work to build something nice and tap into sales channels. Recently, we, for example, had a similar project with Combilo. Royal Koopmans and we were developing local grains for pasta when we suddenly got 850 kilograms of bell peppers. These were no longer suitable for the fresh market."
"But you don't want to just throw them away either, of course. We could make bell pepper pasta for a customer who values minimal food waste. It was a wonderful project. We're looking for these kinds of collaborations. We also found that bell peppers make delicious pasta, which we want to add to the range," says Meijer.
Germany and Scandinavia
Regarding sales markets, Linsie is eyeing Germany and Scandinavia with interest. "We started in the Dutch province of Zeeland and have managed to develop nicely in the Netherlands over a short time. We're eager to keep growing here, and we've started exploring the German and Scandinavian markets. We wanted to see if there's a business case to build for those countries."
"And it seems there is. When it comes to a drive for healthy food, they're a bit more advanced, making them more receptive to alternatives like vegetable pasta. In the Netherlands, we're sticking with the healthcare sector, schools, and childcare facilities for now, where we see large-scale opportunities. That's something we'll explore further in 2024," Linsie continues.
Fruit pasta
She is keeping all her options open. "We're always looking at what else can be done. Ultimately, almost all fruits and vegetables have waste with which we can do something. We're therefore open to all types of products, provided they're feasible. Leeks, for instance, are very difficult to process, texture-wise, and it's too much work to prepare pumpkins for processing."
"It could be that, in the future, we deviate from processing the products into pasta. That's our current focus, but you never know what the future holds. We're considering incorporating fruit into a type of breakfast or lunch pasta. That's not the typical pasta, but a sweet variety to get children eating more fruits and vegetables without thinking about it," Linsie concludes.
For more information:
Linsie Meijer
Sophyn Greens
2 F-G Korte Eeweg
4424 NA, Wemeldinge, NL
Tel: +31 (0) 646 005 970
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.sophini.com
Website: www.sophyngreens.com