Focus on holistic value chain

The fulfilment of a holistic value chain represents a clear benefit for companies in the food and beverage industry in terms of quality, sustainability and transparency. AUSTRIA JUICE relies on the principle of backward integration in its product portfolio. High-quality FTNF flavours are obtained in-house from carefully selected raw materials in the process of fruit juice concentrate production.

Backward integration is when a company takes over and controls one or more upstream manufacturing stages in the value chain. At AUSTRIA JUICE, the focus is on the extraction of FTNF flavours (also called essences or water phases) within the fruit processing, which follows the principle of backward integration and thus includes control over the raw materials used.

When considering the entire value chain, it is also significant that at AUSTRIA JUICE a large part of the raw material volume is sourced from a close radius around the production sites. The credo is:
From the field to the press in one day!

The short transport routes are the basis of the seamless value chain and guarantee the freshness of the fruit to be processed. This reflects the fundamental principles of the company: the sustainable and resource-saving procurement and refinement of agricultural raw materials with a balance of economic, ecological and social responsibility.

In addition to a global sourcing network, AUSTRIA JUICE also relies on the support of local farmers. In Poland and Hungary, farmers are supported in the cultivation of resistant apple varieties, which require up to 80 % less pesticides than conventional varieties. In addition to financial support for new plantations and year-round advice by agronomists from AUSTRIA JUICE, the farmers also receive purchase guarantees. Both these and the international procurement network can guarantee supply and raw material security for the customers.

As an active member of the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) and with various certifications,
AUSTRIA JUICE has set itself a high and realistic goal, which it is determined to achieve with all its strength: By 2030, all raw materials should be of 100 percent sustainable origin.

Transparency as an asset of the future

The topic of sustainability and also transparency are becoming increasingly important for consumers. To build trust, aspects such as food safety, quality and traceability will continue to be top priorities in the food industry. Companies that offer a one-stop shop through full integration are uniquely positioned to meet these needs.

From on-site advice to farmers, careful fruit processing and conceptual design of innovative beverage applications to technological support to customers and market observation, AUSTRIA JUICE thus offers a fully integrated and holistic value chain.

Fruit juice concentrates: concentrated reliability

In addition to a secure supply of raw materials, consistently high quality and product stability are the keys to the success of AUSTRIA JUICE. In addition to processing a wide range of varieties and qualities of apples and berries, the company has also been producing vegetable juice concentrates such as carrot, rhubarb or beetroot for several years, in order to meet individual customer demands and market requirements.

FNTF flavours: focus on backward integration

During the production of these juice concentrates, the high-quality essences (also called water phases or FTNF - from the named fruit - flavours) are also collected in a sophisticated process. In the extraction of these natural flavours, the principle of backward integration thus comes into play at AUSTRIA JUICE. As an experienced manufacturer of fruit juice concentrates, we have direct access to the raw material base from our internal concentrate production. This means that we can also guarantee the high quality and traceability of the raw material for the flavours obtained from the juice concentration.

Backward integration is an important part of sustainable production in the flavour extraction process to guarantee an authentic, characteristic and pure flavour profile. Furthermore, it is important that a stable quality of the water phases can be guaranteed through optimised production units.

The FTNF flavours are used to rearomatize the specific fruit juice concentrates as well as for the flavouring of a wide variety of food and beverage applications in order to offer consumers the unadulterated taste profile of the respective fruits.

Through backward integration, it is also possible to develop a customised blend of in-house produced FNTF flavours for the taste profile of the customer applications. This also allows different flavour profiles to be created within the same fruit, with qualities concentrated 150 to 5,000 times.

The most popular FNTF flavours in the AUSTRIA JUICE range include apple, blackcurrant, redcurrant and sour cherry, as well as raspberry, elderberry and chokeberry, all of which are also available in organic quality. This FTNF portfolio is complemented by pear, blackberry, strawberry, blueberry and carrot.

CONCLUSION:

The fulfilment of a holistic value chain offers benefits for companies in terms of quality, traceability and transparency. For AUSTRIA JUICE this means direct access to the raw material, the geographical proximity of the cultivation areas to the production sites, rapid processing of the fruit into juice concentrates and, in the course of this, the internal extraction of FTNF flavours.
Backward integration is particularly important in the manufacturing process. This is when a company takes over and controls one or more upstream production stages in the value chain.
At AUSTRIA JUICE, the process of flavour extraction follows the principle of backward integration. Due to the internal concentrate production, AUSTRIA JUICE has direct access to the raw material base when extracting FTNF flavours and thus also has control over the quality of the raw material.