JBS has broken ground in San Sebastian, Spain, on its first commercial-scale cultivated meat production facility. The $41 million facility is expected to produce over 1,000 metric tons of cultivated meat per year, with the potential of expanding to 4,000 metric tons of production.
The facility is expected to open by mid-year 2024. It will be owned by BioTech Foods, a cultivated meat firm with JBS as the majority shareholder.
The plant will be built on a 215,000-sq-ft plot of land to allow its expansion and increase its production capacity to meet growing consumer demand. The facility will include bioreactors and technology adapted to produce cultivated protein. JBS also is planning to build a $60 million biotechnology and cultivated protein R&D center in Brazil.
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“As the largest protein producer in the world, it is our responsibility to be at the forefront of any initiatives at the intersection of food and technology,” says Eduardo Noronha, JBS USA head of value-added business. “The new BioTech plant puts JBS in a unique position to lead the segment and ride this wave of innovation. The new hub in San Sebastián will allow BioTech Foods to offer cultivated protein as an innovative product that will meet the consumer demand for healthy, tasty, and sustainable food products.”
“BioTech Foods has the technology and capacity to produce protein on a large scale in a sustainable and innovative manner, addressing commercial needs around the world,” adds Iñigo Charola, cofounder and CEO of BioTech Foods. “Given the challenges imposed on global supply chains, cultivated protein has the potential to stabilize food security and global protein production.”
