Biotech Company Evolva Coming to Cargill Campus in Blair

The State of Nebraska and the Greater Omaha Chamber Economic Development Partnership are cheering another successful attraction effort, a multi-million-dollar endorsement of the region’s economic amenities. International biotech company Evolva (www.evolva.com) has announced plans to grow its global operation in collaboration with Cargill’s campus in Blair, Neb (www.cargillag.com).

The Switzerland-based company develops high-value specialty ingredients, including stevia, nootkatone and resveratrol. It is the latest to join a cluster of major producers, including Novozymes, Evonik, Corbion and NatureWorks, with a presence on the Cargill campus.

Evolva and Cargill are developing the next-generation stevia sweetener EverSweetTM, which will be produced at the Cargill-operated Blair fermentation facility and launched next year. At the same time, Evolva will commence building a state-of-the-art bioprocessing facility on adjacent land leased from Cargill. This facility, operated by Evolva, will manufacture Evolva products, such as nootkatone and resveratrol, starting as early as 2019.

“Nebraska is well suited to helping us build global production for our products, not least because of the state’s green energy and renewable feedstock, well-known fermentation talent, and ample room to expand,” said Neil Goldsmith, president of Evolva. “We hope to bring value to the regional bio-based innovation and development network, building infrastructure that will ultimately form a fully integrated commercial-scale bioprocessing hub for the production of sustainable, high-value, next-generation specialty and functional ingredients.”

Over the next three years, principally in 2018 and 2019, Evolva (www.evolva.com) said it expects to invest an estimated $60 million in Blair.