JBS Invests US $100m In Lab-Based Cultured Meat Production Company

$16 billion Brazilian meat goliath JBS The on Wednesday declared to purchase Spain’s BioTech Foods in a $100 million arrangement that includes a $41 million venture for another Spanish “cultivated meat” plant.

It’s also assembling a lab-meat research facility in Brazil. 

The acquisition denotes the corporation’s entrance into the cultured protein market, in light of the development of food from animal cells.

It will include a A$57 million venture for the development of another production plant in Spain to increase production. JBS additionally reported the foundation of its first Center for Research and Development in Biotechnology and Cultivated Protein in Brazil. 

A corporation statement to financial investors said BioTech Foods was one of the innovators in the improvement of biotechnology for the creation of cultivated protein.

Established in 2017, the company operates a pilot plant in the Spanish city of San Sebastián, and is expected to reach commercial production by mid-2024 when the cultivated protein will reach consumers in the form of various prepared foods, such as hamburgers, sausages, and meatballs, “with the same quality, safety, flavor and texture of traditional protein”.

The innovation has potential for the development of plant beef protein, but additionally for vegan chicken, vegan pork and vegan fish, JBS said. 

Through its investment in the Cultivated Protein Research Center in Brazil, expected to begin one year from now, JBS said it planned to foster new procedures that speed up scale gains and reduce the production expenses of cultured protein, expecting its commercialization on the market. 

JBS in 2019 joined the rest of the meat processing industry goliaths, Cargill and Tyson, with its first investment in the plant-based meat area, by its acquisition of Planterra Foods.

In June this year, it concluded a second arrangement to buy Europe’s third-biggest plant-based food producer, Vivera.