Paris (AFP)

The "cultivated chicken", imitation of poultry offered by the Zurich start-up Planted Chicken, is made from yellow pea proteins. The "vegetable burger" of the American company Beyond Meat also, even if it is tinged with beet juice.

Long reserved for animal feed and poor relatives of gastronomy and agriculture, yellow peas are once again becoming a trend in the fields, as they are very sought after by industrialists in the food industry and "foodtech" under the effect of fashion. vegan and the development of alternatives to meat.

This pea, which looks a bit like chickpeas, is smaller, harvested dry and hard in July in France - while green peas are harvested fresh in May-June. And it comes from afar.

In 2019, France cultivated 154,000 hectares, according to surface declarations made for requests for subsidies from the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In the depths of the wave, in 1981, it had fallen to 75,000 hectares, then exclusively reserved for animal feed.

"There are more and more industrialists who extract pea protein for fake synthetic meats", explains to AFP Judith Burstin, geneticist of the research institute Inrae Dijon, who piloted the teams having sequenced the pea genome in 2019.

GMO-free, gluten-free, these yellow peas are at the crossroads of the two revolutions, food and climate, says Ms. Burstin: with 23% protein on average, they are one of the possible alternatives to meat. The plant, a legume, also has the distinction of capturing nitrogen from the air to nourish the soil, thus allowing a reduction in chemical fertilizers.

- "Bad lands" -

The world's leading producer and exporter of yellow peas is Canada, with 3.6 million tonnes in 2018 out of the 15.7 million tonnes produced worldwide that year.

In France, agronomic yields are not very good. "Normal, we often reserve the bad lands for them," remarks Jean-Paul La Campagne, from the interprofession of vegetable proteins Terres Univia.

The profession hopes to obtain an increase in European aid specific to protein crops (currently at 187 euros per hectare) with the future protein plan announced by President Emmanuel Macron, but which is slow to materialize.

In France, out of the 621,000 tonnes of yellow peas harvested in 2019-2020, the parastatal market management organization FranceAgriMer estimates the volume absorbed by manufacturers for human consumption by protein extraction at 140,000 tonnes. With essentially two companies, Sotexpro, based in Marne, specialized in protein texturing, and Roquette, in the North.

The latter, a family group that claims to be the world leader in ingredients of plant origin, intends to obtain the same status in the vegetable protein sector.

"The group has invested heavily over the past five years in this vegetable protein market, more than half a billion euros", underlines Jean-Philippe Azoulay, vice-president of the peas and new proteins branch of the group, during an interview with AFP.

Roquette has invested in its historic site of Vic-sur-Aisne, in France, and in the Netherlands, for specialty proteins, but especially in Canada in the construction of a factory in Manitoba which is to go into production this year and "represents more than half of the group's investment plan" in vegetable proteins.

"It will be the biggest plant in the world on the whole pea market and it will significantly increase Roquette's capacity", explains Mr. Azoulay, however refusing to say more about the expected production volume.

Roquette plans to honor a multi-year contract with Beyond Meat. But the company already sees further, with a "faba bean specialty, another legume:" manufacturers put protein in many products, the whole market is growing in double digits ", concludes M. Azoulay.

© 2020 AFP