APAC companies form a powerhouse coalition to bring Cell-Ag to market

This week marks a historic event for cell-based protein. On March 15th, 11 Asia-Pacific cultivated meat and seafood companies announced a coalition that will allow its members to collaborate and share information and bring products to market ASAP. 

Source: CellX

The 11 founding members of the Asia-Pacific Society for Cellular Agriculture (APAC-SCA)  include two Mainland Chinese companies CellX and Joes Future Food, as well as Hong Kong’s Avant Meats. The other members are Singapore’s Shiok Meats and Gaia Foods, South Korea’s DaNAgreen and SeaWith, Japan’s IntegriCulture, and Israel’s Aleph Farms, MeaTech and Supermeat.

Asia has proven itself to be a global leader in the pursuit of cell-based animal product alternatives. The region boasts 30% of the world’s cultivated meat producers, and let’s not forget that Singapore was the first country in the world to approve the commercial sale of cultivated meat. Research also suggests that Asian consumers are more open-minded when it comes to cultivated products than those in Western countries.

Photo by zhang kaiyv from Pexels

While there is growing potential for this new food technology, the APAC-SCA will still need to convince key policymakers and consumers of the safety and benefits of such products. Nevertheless, Vegan in China remains hopeful for the future of cellular agriculture in China. Earlier this month President Xi Jinping made reference to alternative proteins playing a role in the nation’s food security plans. We are also seeing an increase in private investor interest in domestic lab-grown meats, such as last October when Joes Future Food bagged almost USD$11 million in funding. 

Overall, I’m very excited to see these countries and companies collaborating together instead of competing to bring forward much-needed solutions for our problematic food supply chains, and animal welfare and sustainability practices. As we say in Chinese, jia you 加油! (tr. Let’s go!)