Germany: Taifun´s Tofulution

Wolfgang Heck is pleased. “The seeds I have sown are growing,” says the founder of the firm, not without pride. “People are responding to what we’ve created since we began in 1985. We can see how our original mission to produce plant-based food from soya is becoming a movement with a future. Vegan nutrition is a lifestyle. We helped to create the enthusiasm for vegan – we’re part of the tofulution.” He said how great it is to re-discover, re-surfacing in modified form, the motives rooted in political ideology of the 1980s for meatless nutrition. “People’s need for sensible nutrition is at least as strong now as in those days and, as I see it, it has in fact become even stronger. By virtue of better networking and also connecting with the work of many initiatives and NGOs, the whole movement to make the world a better place is now much broader based,” says Heck. (Picture: The company headquarters, with administration and canteen, is located in Freiburg)
 

Vegan cookery courses, vegan cookery books, vegan cooking evenings with friends – all this is evidence that vegetable-based foods are currently a big issue. It’s reflected clearly in the turnover recorded for the Taifun brand: approximately €23m in 2012, which represents growth of over 30 % in the last three years. What the entrepreneur Heck finds even more pleasing is the disproportionate growth of 40 % in the case of the basic products. “This shows us that people are cooking again and taking pleasure in being creative.” In total, they process about 50 tonnes of soya a week to make tofu. (Picture: from left: an enduring duo - managing director Wolfgang Heck and sales director Jesùs Bastante in the “garden of four elements”)

“Veggie and vegan have become respectable,” adds Jesùs Bastante. “It becomes obvious when we talk to our retail customers. They use the Taifun brand to create their own profile, because quite simply it’s coherent, with quality, taste, the balance between the proven and the innovative, and the manageable size of the product range. With our products we’re communicating the themes regionality, ethics, protection of the environment and the climate and a number of other issues,” the director for sales and customer care explains. He has been promoting the Taifun brand with great passion for the last nine years, and he values highly the family atmosphere that the firm cultivates. Also the fact that the generational change is occurring in such a gradual and natural way is in keeping with this picture. “It’s a pleasure to see young people coming into the firm because they respond to the appeal of our themes - ecology, sustainability, social fairness and healthy eating. We’re an attractive employer.” (Picture: Jesùs Bastante has a special love of tofu)

Not only are the company philosophy and the tasty products attractive but also the company’s whole involvement with soya beans as a raw material. This starts with breeding. In collaboration with the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim and the regional seed breeding institute Landessaatzuchtanstalt Eckartsweier, they are breeding with earlier ripening varieties of soya to produce seeds for cooler regions like East Germany and Bavaria, and as part of the federal programme Organic Agriculture (BÖLN) about 1000 hybrids are currently being tested. “The manufacture of high-value tofu makes greater demands on a soya variety than feeding it to animals,” explains Fabian von Beesten, who advises soya growers. “The bean must have an aromatic, slightly sweet taste, a pleasant texture and protein content around 45 %, and of course it has to produce a good yield out in the fields." Whether a bean meets the quality standards can be ascertained within half an hour in the so-called Technikum, which is a miniature version of the big production plant. (Picture: It doesn’t take long for Ute Lehmann in the Technikum to determine the suitability of particular soya beans for tofu)

If the test is successful, the variety is developed further, a process that takes at least six years. “Our hybrids from the breeding project have to be officially approved as a variety and then propagated before we can make use of them,” von Beesten explains. “For contract cropping, up too now we have used only varieties from a seed breeder in Canada that we get state registered organic farmers in the region to propagate and prepare.” This seed is then sold to the organic farmers in Germany, Austria and France who grow supplies for Taifun.
(Picture: In great demand - tofu natur is produced by shift work)
 

“We succeeded in securing 1,400 hectares of cropping in Europe for the 2013 season,” von Beesten is pleased to report “If everything goes well, in 2013 we can store  a further reserve of soya that ensures we have a supply of domestic beans in years of poorer harvests. In 2012 in Freiburg we processed the harvest from about 1,000 hectares (ca. 2,500 t).However, demand is increasing continually and this means that the sales target for this year of 400,000 tofu packs per week has already been exceeded. Retailers are ordering far more, and it’s putting our stocks under pressure,” says Jesùs Bastante. The cropping capacity in Europe has been expanded to 70 % of Taifun’s requirement and they are working hard to get more farmers to grow soya. 30 % is still being imported from Canada and Brazil. (Picture: Persuading farmers in Europe to grow soya is the job of  Fabian von Beesten)
 

Whilst the vegetarian and vegan trend is already in full swing in the wholefood trade in Germany, the situation in the 15 countries where Life Food sends its exports varies greatly. In France, the second biggest market after Germany, Wolfgang Heck thinks the trend began a little later. France accounts for 15 % -17 % of the 50 percent of turnover attributable to exports. “French consumers appreciate in particular the fact that we grow soya in France,”  Bastante explains. The third biggest market is Italy, where the number of vegetarians is rising steadily and currently constitutes around 10 % (ca. 6 million people) of the total population. Britain, Switzerland and Spain are also among the important export markets for the Taifun brand. Heck and Bastante think there is still great potential in big cities. “Of course, it’s not just vegetarians and vegans who are our customers. Our convenience products make it easy for meat eaters to try out tofu products,” says Bastante. (Picture: The Taifun brand is well represented in the specialist wholefood trade in France)
 

At Life Food they are looking straight ahead – the young spirit can be seen in every part of the firm. Agricultural engineer Fabian von Beesten (31), for example, belongs to the younger generation, and his experiences have been very positive: “We younger people have the feeling that they take encouraging the upcoming generation very seriously. They create very good framework conditions that give me excellent opportunities for further personal development.” Beate Thießen (34, second from left in the picture), who joined Life Food five years ago as a trainee on the federal programme for organic agriculture, is today the team leader for purchasing. She likes the combination of agricultural production and processing, and also the scope the firm gives her to use her own initiative. “Quality is a top priority, and I’m inspired by seeing the dedication and passion people invest in their work here,” she says. (Picture: The younger generation is to be seen in all parts of the firm) 
 

“Friends often envy me having this job,” declared Christian Burger (32, picture above, on far right). The trained butcher has worked for the company for 13 years, and he is now the team leader in production – a job with a lot of responsibility. “My work constantly presents new challenges and I find that stimulating. But I appreciate the fact too that values are a living reality here.”  More than 60 % of the roughly 50 employees in administration are under 40, although in production the younger generation is not so clearly represented, with a big majority of the 150 employees (70 %) belonging to the over forties. But, as Regine Follmann from the administration points out: “The younger generation has been taking over responsibility in many parts of the firm for two years now, and it is noticeable at many points in our operations.” (Picture: A meaningful job – important for many young people these days)

Info: http://www.taifun-tofu.de/en/index.php