• 🥩 Bezos Investing In “Sustainable Protein”
• 🍫 Chocolate Keeps Getting More Expensive
• 🇺🇲🇨🇦 Hain Celestial Names New NA President

Deductions can be an overwhelming pain for growing CPG brands, often negatively impacting their cash flow. But not managing them properly can cost brands well beyond those lost dollars and margin points. Here’s a deeper look into how to take control and use deductions to improve your business. Learn more

A trade show with over 70,000 attendees ​​naturally creates plenty of buzz, and mid-way through Natural Products Expo West, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave a handful of companies even more to be excited about.

On Thursday, the USDA announced it has allocated $40.5 million from its Organic Market Development Grant program. While the bulk of the 60 grantees were those growing and processing produce, dairy, nuts, grains and legumes, among other agricultural products, a handful of vertically-integrated CPG companies also snagged some cash.

Zego Oats and Snacktivist Foods, 12 Tides, Lundberg Farms, Little Sesame, and Gruff/Cream of the West were among the brands that received support to strengthen their supply chains, expand access to organic foods and scale their businesses by increasing processing and production capacity.

For Zego and Snacktivist, the $3 million grant marks the start of a joint venture known as CIVC (Collaborative Integrated Value Chain) and will significantly transform how the two companies do business. With the new funds, the now-sister companies have purchased an organic and gluten-free oat processing facility in Montana. Zego had been the facility’s largest customer, and when the farmer-operator decided to retire, Colleen Kavanagh, Zego’s founder and CEO, jumped at the opportunity to own the plant herself. 

“The problem is that farmers aren't getting paid enough [and] they don’t have a good place to sell their value-added products if they're small. The brands who would be the ones to buy them can't get access, but also the co-packing fees [for processing] are high, so they can't succeed on-shelf,” Kavanagh explained. 

By purchasing the facility, Kavanagh, alongside Snacktivist founder and CEO Joni Kindwall-Moore, aims to solve that critical pain point. (ICYMI: Snacktivist recently sidelined its CPG business in favor of brokering clean-conventional, regeneratively-grown ingredients) 

Together, they will operate the plant on a “limited profit model” meaning all profits are redistributed from the farmer to employees and to the brands, Kindwall-Moore said. This eliminates the “margin drain” of co-packing fees that are often the cause of death for many small companies; Kavanagh explained, “the facility is a utility.”

Read the full story on Nosh for more about the duo’s efforts and what others are doing with their grant funds.

Did you meet someone at Natural Products Expo West who truly impressed you? Nominate that person for Nosh Notables!

Our annual list aims to honor the people who make the industry enjoyable, successful and fulfilling. And this year, we want to make sure our readers and Insiders are helping shine the spotlight.

Here's your chance to salute the thought leaders, hard workers and positive forces across the business of packaged food, from brands to retailers to suppliers to investors and beyond.

Nominate a notable individual by filling out our submission form here.

Amazon titan Jeff Bezos announced last week that the Bezos Earth Fund, which totals about $1 billion, has committed $60 million to establish the Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein. The investment will pursue climate-friendly protein production and address technological challenges in the plant-based, fermented and cultivated (cell-cultured) meat industries.

💰 The investment will go towards boosting nutritional benefits and enhancing texture and flavor while funding scalable growth in an industry that has faced obstacles to sustained consumer demand.

💬 Announced at the Aspen Ideas: Climate conference in Miami Beach, Florida by Earth Fund vice chair and Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez, the initiative intends to bring technological innovation to the sector to “feed 10 billion people with healthy, sustainable food throughout this century while protecting our planet.”

🌎 The Earth Fund was established to support farmers and sustainable agriculture practices in raising livestock and pasture management.

It's not just you, chocolate bars are getting more costly and there aren’t any signs prices will slowdown soon. According to Intercontinental Exchange in New York, cocoa prices hit a new record on Friday reaching over $8,490 per metric ton. Today the price has subsided minimally to around $7,890.

📉 Econ 101 can help explain the cocoa crisis. Demand for chocolate is rising far quicker than supply can keep up with due to poor crop yields this year as farmers battle bad weather and a bean disease.

👨🏿‍🌾 West African cocoa producing countries including Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria have slashed production due to climate change headwinds and a lack of investment which is necessary to plant new trees. These countries are responsible for growing about 75% of the world’s cocoa.

😱 Chocolate companies are feeling the effect and passing prices down to consumers. Hershey’s referenced cocoa prices in its Q4 earnings call last month with CEO Michele Buck saying that the company will use “every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, as a way to manage the business.”

Chad Marquardt will join The Hain Celestial Group as president of North America, leading strategy and execution in the U.S. and Canada market, effective March 25.

💼 He previously was oversaw the American’s division of Glanbia Performance Nutrition as chief customer officer where he managed its snacks, beverages and supplements business in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Earlier, he held various roles at Reckitt Benckiser, Mead Johnson Nutrition and Unilever.

💭 Marquardt will report to Hain’s president and CEO Wendy Davidson, who said in a statement: “Chad brings to Hain deep strategic experience and expertise across sales, customer development, channel expansion and omnichannel brand building in the better-for-you consumer packaged goods space.”

📈 Marquardt’s responsibilities include overseeing Hain Reimagined, the company’s second, multi-year transformation plan since 2018.