Israel food-tech company Steakholder Foods has struck a deal with an unnamed member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to launch a pilot plant for 3D-printed “hybrid-fish products”.
The Rehovot-headquartered business said it had signed a “memorandum of agreement for strategic cooperation with an accredited GCC-based governmental body”.
Steakholder Foods, known until last year as MeaTech 3D, said the “multi-million dollar deal” would see its mystery “strategic partner” invest in the setting up of the facility.
The company told Just Food it would name the entity after the pilot plant “advances”. The facility will be “in the GCC region”, it added.
The GCC is an economic union between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
“The agreement foresees a material initial down payment to Steakholder Foods for the procurement of its 3D-printer technologies, followed by a milestone-based sales and procurement plan for industrial-scale output,” the company said.
Steakholder Foods, which has ADRs listed on the Nasdaq in the US, has yet to commercially launch its products. It said it “eventually aims to create a first-of-its-kind, large-scale production facility in the Persian Gulf region”.
The company is targeting the B2B market, offering food companies 3D bio-printers to make meat and fish made from cells.
Steakholder’s products are its “ready-to-cook” 3D-printer technologies and bio-inks, which it says are tailored to produce cultivated fish and meat, as well as vegetable-based products.
"After intensive years of development, Steakholder Foods is excited to sign this first agreement with a strategic partner, generating our first income stream that represents one of the first substantial income agreements for a company in the cultivated meat industry, a huge step forward,” CEO Arik Kaufman said.
Yair Ayalon, VP of Business Development at Steakholder Foods called the deal a “pivotal moment” and added: “Looking ahead, we remain committed to pursuing additional strategic partnerships to enable us to deliver innovative solutions for the food-tech industry.”
