INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Indian River County Commissioners welcomed a new company to the area with more than words, its welcome wagon included a $177,000 grant award.
Parabel USA will locate in Fellsmere, which is becoming an “agricultural tech-hub,” according to David Schectmann, the business development manager.
It will produce high-protein powders for humans and animals made from the aquatic plant Lemna, commonly called Duck Weed. Schectmann said the product name, Lentein, “is a play on Lemna and protein.”
The county, since 1996, has encouraged targeted businesses locating here through its Local Job Grant Program. Parabel falls under the “organic chemical manufacturing” and “manufacturing/warehouse/distribution” categories.
County commissioners awarded the grant at their Tuesday meeting, to be paid in $59,000 increments over three years, in exchange for the company creating 45 new jobs, 43 paying within grant guidelines. Twenty of the jobs pay 75 percent of the county’s average wage or $28,500, 15 pay 100 percent or $37,900 and six pay 150 percent or $56,850. The grant guidelines state $3,000, $5,000 and $6,000 will be paid for each job in those categories, which totals $177,000.
The company has been in the area for about four years, running a “pilot facility,” Schectmann said, to perfect the process of growing, harvesting and refining Lemna.
“This will be the first site in the world that produces Lemna for public consumption,” Schectmann said.
The company decided to locate their first facility in Fellsmere after looking over sites in Mexico, Peru and Africa that have “the appropriate weather profile where we could grow up to 10 months a year,” Schectmann said. The pilot facility provided a base and an aquatic fish and shrimp farm is a neighbor, he said.
“We think we’re in an exciting area for hybrid and innovative agriculture and technology,” he said.
“Indian River County has been very supportive. Orange and citrus are receding and the county is looking for something to take its place,” Schectmann said.
The facility will be built over two years in three stages, 100 acres put into production in every six months, filling the 400-acre site, Schectmann said.
“It is a green film on still water similar to algae. It’s incredible how fast it grows,” Schectmann said. ”The growth level is really unknown to any other plant. We have to harvest on a daily basis.”
The powder produced will come in two varieties, green and white, because some people are turned off by the green color.
“We remove the chlorophyll. It’s not just about nutrition. We have to balance that with market demand. We remove the color and odor. We’ve worked very hard to make it a neutral taste,” Schectmann said.
Lentein matches whey powders in protein levels, but is plant- and not dairy-based, making it a good choice for lactose intolerant and vegan consumers. It exceeds soy powders’ protein levels, but unlike them is not a genetically-modified plant, Schectmann said. It is also gluten free and kosher.
“The feedback from our public launch and market campaign,” he said, “has been tremendous worldwide.”
