London, January 7 - PureCircle, ("PureCircle" or the "Company"), which develops and manufactures natural food ingredients for the global food and beverage industry, is pleased to announce that it has completed amendments to its existing contract to supply Cargill with a portion of its Rebaudioside-A ("Reb-A") needs. Reb-A is the first natural, zero-calorie high intensity sweetener. This non-exclusive arrangement, in place until mid 2010, obligates Cargill to purchase, and PureCircle to supply, a significant volume of Reb-A product.
The Company also has agreements in place to supply Reb-A to a number of other international food and beverage companies from 1 July 2008.
Magomet Malsagov, Managing Director of PureCircle, said:
"We are pleased to have extended this important contract with Cargill, with whom we have a longstanding relationship based on our development of Reb-A over the last few years, and which demonstrates their confidence in the market for this remarkable product."
PureCircle is the world's leading producer of Reb-A, a natural, zero-calorie high intensity sweetener ("HIS") extracted from the Stevia Rebaudiana Bertoni plant ("Stevia"), for supply to the global food and beverage industry.
Reb-A is in increasing demand from international food and beverage companies. As well as being all natural, Reb-A provides consumers with various healthy benefits including having no calorific content and a low glycemic index, making it suitable for consumption by diabetics.
PureCircle holds proprietary process technology for the extraction of high purity Reb-A from Stevia. The Directors believe that the Group is the only commercial supplier of high purity Reb-A in the world, and has a significant first mover advantage in the natural HIS market.