Benson Hill finalizing the 2021 harvest of its proprietary soybean varieties, including the first commercial plantings of its Ultra-High Protein (UHP) soybeans. Results from the field to date demonstrate the data acquisition advantage of Benson Hill’s closed-loop supply chain and crop performance needed to meet the company’s 2022 commercial plan.
Benson Hill leverages seed innovation and an integrated supply chain model to help solve downstream food formulation challenges upstream in the farmer’s field. The 2021 harvest of identity-preserved, proprietary soybeans with favorable protein, anti-nutrient and oleic oil profiles will source the company’s portfolio of nutritious and sustainable ingredients designed to serve the alternative plant-based meat, specialty cooking oil and other human food, animal feed and aquaculture markets.
Benson Hill measured the soy protein level, oil content and non-GMO status across the UHP fields it contracted even before the harvest was complete. The company believes this visibility enables improved product operational efficiencies and confidence in the 2022 revenue potential for its ingredient segment, an area where the company expects substantial growth. Scale in this segment is further supported by Benson Hill’s recently acquired Indiana-based soy crushing facility providing commercialization of the company’s proprietary soybean portfolio.
“The insights we have gained through this harvest demonstrate the combined power of CropOS® with our integrated supply chain. Thanks to the diligent efforts of our team members and farmer partners, we are particularly pleased with the data acquisition results, which have exceeded our expectations. This work is serving to further strengthen our prediction and simulation capabilities, which inform our product pipeline, field production efforts, and future revenues,” said Matt Crisp, CEO of Benson Hill. “It’s also clear from our progress on contracting 2022 acreage that we are well positioned to help meet the growing farmer and market interest in our offerings. We continue to make strategic investments in our people, innovation and infrastructure to leverage the tremendous near-term opportunities in the plant-based protein market, and generate value for our shareholders, customers and farmer partners.”
Benson Hill is building a world-class on-farm soy protein expression data set to accelerate the improvement of its portfolio and pipeline. Field trial data from the company’s R&D program, Benson Hill Food System Innovators Program (FSI) farmer trials, and its commercially planted acres have been digitized to refine the predictive capabilities of CropOS® for seed improvement, taking farm to fork to a whole new level and informing planted acreage plans for 2022.
