OptiCept’s collaboration with Dole advances

Today, OptiCept announced that the company has deepened its collaboration with Dole, one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of fruits and vegetables, to explore how OptiCept's technology platforms can improve the quality of pineapple rings and pieces during production. If the tests prove successful and a potential partnership materializes, it could help OptiCept achieve a broader commercial scale in the fruit and vegetable industry. However, we note that this project is still in the pilot phase, so we make no changes to our estimates at this time.

OptiCept’s collaboration with Dole initially focused on increasing pineapple juice extraction in The Philippines. Following successful tests, although no concrete order has been communicated, the cooperation is expanding to a pilot project in Thailand. This project's goal is to evaluate how the combination of OptiCept’s technology platforms, PEF (Pulsed Electric Field) and VI (Vacuum Infusion), can enhance the quality of pineapple rings and pieces, thereby creating a more attractive product through improved texture and color. Additionally, the pilot project will assess the efficiency of the pineapple drying process, where OptiCept has previously shown a reduction in drying time by approximately 25%, thus also reducing energy consumption. The customer will pay a fee of EUR 17,000 (~0.2 MSEK) for this 14-day pilot project, which is scheduled to start in Q3 2024 in Thailand.

Potential partnership in liquid food

During the spring of this year, OptiCept filed a patent application related to improving the organoleptic properties of fruit and vegetable products using both technology platforms, which we commented on here. Therefore, the recent deepened collaboration with Dole is not surprising, though it is a positive development for OptiCept. If the pilot project is successful, we believe the company will likely seek a partnership with Dole to expedite market entry and launch a product that meets customer needs, potentially similar to the structure already in place with FPS for solid food. However, in our view, given the early stage of the project, the possible partnership's structure and timing remain uncertain and speculative at the moment.

Our current estimates for the FoodTech business area in 2024 and 2025 are 33 MSEK and 62 MSEK, respectively. Successful tests and a potential partnership could support our growth estimates. However, for OptiCept to meet these estimates, the company must also maintain deliveries to FPS and convert more of its order book tied to OliveCept installations into revenue. Given the early stage of this collaboration, which is currently only in the evaluation phase, we make no changes to our estimates at this time.