Nomen will innovate with superfoods and nutritional elements

The plant for ready-to-eat rice cups packaged in glass, which the company Nomen Foods put into operation four months ago at its facilities in Deltebre, will be the starting point for the company, owned by the Arrossaire del Delta de l'Ebre cooperative, to deepen its research and innovation of new products.

According to the CEO of Nomen Foods, Enric Batlle, future lines of innovation and research will involve other products, such as superfoods and nutritional elements, which could be launched by next autumn, reported the ACN agency. Thus, Batlle has indicated that the plant for rice cups packaged in reusable glass is the "base" of this upcoming food venture, after the R&D process that the company has carried out with the National Center for Food Technology and Safety (CNTA) over the last four years.

The commitment to innovation is a maxim of Arrossaires del Delta de l'Ebre. Earlier this year, Nomen Foods announced that it will produce rice malt for brewing beers. The Deltebre company has reached a strategic agreement for the exclusive distribution and development of these ranges with Molina for brewers, a firm with which the specialty distributor Ricardo Molina operates in the brewing channel in Spain and Portugal.

Officially inaugurated this Friday by the Minister of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, Teresa Jordà, the production capacity of the new plant, in a first phase, is ten million servings of Qualitat1Minut rice.

Distribution will initially be national, but it also aims to open up to the international market this year, starting with the French market, for which Nomen Foods expects to produce 30 million units within five years. For now, the new production line has ten workers, seven of whom hold newly created positions.

To this must be added that the 1,700 square meter facilities will incorporate the manufacture of ready meals in mass consumption format, which the company has been marketing for some time and whose production was outsourced, and which in the last fiscal year reached almost half a million kilos.

Qualitat1Minut can be acquired in El Corte Inglés supermarket chain and will soon reach the mainstream market, both in supermarkets and smaller stores. According to the company, its cooking process "preserves 100% of the nutritional integrity of the food in addition to a flavor in the different varieties of rice" and highlights that, with the glass packaging, the carbon footprint compared to other similar plastic products existing in the market is reduced by almost 40%.

The company has invested three million euros in this project which has had the support of the Institut Català de Finances (ICF) and the financial collaboration of Cajamar. The construction responds to environmental sustainability standards and the entire manufacturing process is powered by photovoltaic solar energy.

Nomen Foods employs 70 workers and has exclusively guaranteed the supply of rice from the cooperative that exploits 5,500 hectares in the Ebro Delta area. The data from its last fiscal year 2020/2021, closed on August 31, place turnover at 27.3 million euros, 8% lower than the previous year. However, Nomen Foods' normalized EBITDA reached 2.5 million euros, in line with the previous year.

The group produces and markets products under the Nomen, Bayo brands ---for the Horeca channel--- and Segadors del Delta --- to group the round and bomba varieties cultivated in the Ebro Delta Natural Park---, in addition to bulk businesses for industry and export. Also under the Segadors del Delta range, the company has recently launched 1860, a rice cream liqueur.