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Solazyme and Unilever Sign Supply Agreement for Tailored Algal Oil

Solazyme, maker of algae-based oils and bioproducts, today announced a commercial supply agreement with Unilever for the first partnered Solazyme Tailored™ Algal Oil, a culmination of five years of collaboration between the companies. The agreement covers the first of Solazyme and Unilever's jointly developed tailored oils with an initial supply of at least 10,000 metric tons (MT), which Unilever says it will use in its Dove and Brylcreem brand personal care products, according to the New York Times.

By Jennifer Elks | Published 10 years ago | About a 2 minute read

The agreement covers the first of Solazyme and Unilever's jointly developed tailored oils with an initial supply of at least 10,000 metric tons (MT), which Unilever says it will use in its Dove and Brylcreem brand personal care products, according to the New York Times.

The oil will be produced at the Solazyme Bunge Renewable Oils facility, a joint venture of Solazyme and sustainable agribusiness giant Bunge located at Bunge's Moema sugar mill in Brazil. Customary product validation trials are scheduled to take place in Q4 2013.

"Unilever is a global leader in both performance-based consumer packaged goods and sustainability, and this agreement further solidifies their commitment to supply consumers with the best performing and most sustainable products available," said Solazyme CEO Jonathan Wolfson. "Unilever is a highly valued strategic partner that has greatly influenced our ability to scale our tailored oil technology over the past several years. We look forward to the opportunity to continue to build and expand our relationship with Unilever as we take this next step in commercializing the world's first tailored renewable oil production platform. We expect this to be the first of many supply agreements with Unilever."

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"This first supply agreement is the result of many years of successful collaboration, during which Solazyme demonstrated strength as a partner and continually achieved key development milestones outlined by our world-class scientific and technology teams," said David Blanchard, Chief Category R&D Officer at Unilever. "We believe that Solazyme's tailored oils technology can provide sustainable competitive advantage across many categories and brands, and we view this agreement as just the beginning of the commercial phase of our relationship."

Earlier this month, Unilever launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneur Awards, a competition hosted on the Ashoka Changemakers platform designed to inspire young people around the world to tackle environmental, social and health issues.