October 2008

Getting word out about new and improved products as well as emerging technologies – at the core of value added businesses – can be a major hurdle.

SoyLink™ is the only plant in the world that makes its primary product – a milled small-particle soy powder – and uses a new technology that removes the beany flavor characteristic of other soybean powders, according to Dr. Noel Rudie, Vice President for Research and Operations. Technologies that enable both attributes are patented by SoyLink™. The plant is located in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

SoyLink™ has been able to increase volume and sales steadily. In 2003-04, again in 2004-05 and also in 2005-06, Rudie said output was doubled to meet demand. Sales were maintained in 2006-07, but output again doubled in the first part of 2008.

One major end-product on grocery shelves that includes the small particle soy powder is organic soy milk from the second largest producer of organic soy milk in the country. The product also makes the “faces” of growers available. By using the expiration date on the label, consumers can actually go to the internet and see the farm on which the beans are produced. This traceability technique is a bigger practice in other countries.

“We think consumers are going to demand this know-the-producer practice more and more, particularly in organic products,” he said. Half of the powder milled by SoyLink™ is organic. All beans are Identity Preserved (IP). SoyLink™ also mills other edible beans into powders.

Primary customers/markets are dairy analogs – soy milk, soy ice cream, soy pudding, soy yogurt – and soy nutrition bars, where 30 percent of the bars are soy powder.

“Our powder is a unique product. It takes awhile to get it into the market.” Rudie explained that soy products using the smaller particle powder and coming from SoyLink™’s patented processes lose both the grittiness and beany taste that other soy powders introduce into products. With SoyLink™ powder, food processors have an advantage. They no longer will have the waste product – Okara – produced with other powders. Typically, other soy flours have higher costs and lose yield because they must centrifuge out the Okara. Then they must dispose of the waste, usually by land spreading.

“With our product, they no longer have the waste, the extra equipment need or the disposal problem,” Rudie noted. “And with our patented process, there is no beany taste in the product. Ours is a smaller particle powder with no waste and no chalkiness,” a drawback in other edible soy products, particularly soy milk.

In addition, consumers benefit because the unnoticed fiber content in the soy milk is not removed, he said.

Connecting with companies in order to boost sales and volume output is the primary goal of the company this year. At the same time, Rudie said SoyLink™ also is looking for the right parent company or large investor who can “bring in the muscle for sales and marketing.”

Rudie described the evolution of the company in the following way:

SoyLink™ began operations in July 2002 as part of FarmConnect, a large farmer cooperative in Minnesota that handles meat, soy, gluten-free edible dry bean products and other ag products. FarmConnect pulled together investors from several Midwest states to purchase a facility left idle after the failure of Soy Protein Technology, which was built with Japanese investment.

SoyLink™  received a $500,000 Value Added Producer Grant (VAPG) that year.

In 2006, a major SoyLink investor with a special interest in the soy powder operation bought out all shares of the company. SoyLink™ is now a fully owned subsidiary of Poet.

A specific challenge for the company is to maintain a supply of food grade beans. Demand is high, since 90 percent of soybeans produced are not food grade. Currently, Rudie noted, there is a lot of pressure on farm land use. In addition, growing IP products is a lot more work for the farmer. 

More information about the company, its management team and its products can be found at www.soylink.net.