All ears for innovation: Elaine Watson gets a guided tour of Roquette's cereals and starch processing plant and laboratories and hears how it is harvesting innovation

摘要

Set amid acres of farmland in France's Nord Pas-de-Calais region, Roquette's gargantuan starch processing facility in Lestrem dominates the local landscape to such an extent that it has even diverted a river in order to expand its industrial empire. But if size matters - and in starch production it certainly helps - it is innovation, rather than sheer scale, that will give the family-owned French ingredients giant the edge over the competition, insist bosses at the company's headquarters and R&D hub,also at Lestrem. With the price of some of its raw materials going through the roof as crops are diverted into biofuel production and demand from China and India continues to rise, the commercial imperative to extract higher-value speciality ingredients from peas, potatoes, wheat and maize has never been greater.