January 5, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Darling Ingredients, a global producer of sustainable natural ingredients and specialty solutions, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of Valley Proteins for approximately $1.1 billion in cash. 

Darling is a global developer and world-leading producer of organic ingredients and a wide range of sustainable protein and fat products, while also being one of the largest producers of renewable clean energy.

With operations spanning five continents, Darling collects waste streams from the agri food industry, repurposing them into specialty ingredients such as hydrolyzed collagen, edible and feed grade fats, animal proteins and meals, plasma, pet food ingredients, fuel feedstocks, and green bioenergy. 

Joining the Darling business will be Valley Proteins – an operator of 18 major rendering and used cooking oil facilities throughout the southern, southeast, and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. The company also operates a fleet of 550 vehicles and employs 1,900. 

Darling stated that this deal will give it a new supply channel of additional low-carbon feedstock.

“We are pleased to add Valley Proteins to our global ingredient family and we expect this acquisition to be accretive post integration,” said Randall C. Stuewe, chairman and CEO, Darling Ingredients. “In the evolving world of ESG and global decarbonization, Valley Proteins will supplement Darling’s global supply of waste fats and greases.”

Stuewe continued, “The new supply will now provide Darling with additional low carbon feedstock to produce renewable diesel and potentially sustainable aviation fuel. Valley Proteins has a rich 70 plus year history of providing essential services to the meat processing industry and restaurant locations and our teams will work diligently to complete this acquisition in a timely manner.”

Last year, Darling Ingredients doubled down on insect protein by acquiring the 50 percent stake it already didn’t own in EnviroFlight – a producer of non-pathogenic black soldier fly larvae(BSF) at scale. 

With a mission to develop sustainable animal and plant nutrients using low-value materials in an environmentally responsible manner, EnviroFlight opened its first commercial BSF facility in Maysville, Kentucky, in December 2018.

EnviroFlights insect-focused production model offers protein yield potential that is significantly higher than traditional protein sources given the efficiency at which BSF convert low-value organic materials into higher-value proteins, oils, and frass for the animal feed and pet food industries.

Together, Darling’s operational expertise with EnviroFlight’s innovative and scalable production model using BSF can be leveraged to standardize processes for optimizing BSF-based feed. 

At the time, Stuewe commented, “Expanding our ownership of EnviroFlight empowers us to accelerate our ability to create higher value, sustainable specialty proteins for the agriculture and companion animal feed industries.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com. 

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