Aleph Farms to bring cultivated meat to Japan in cooperation with Mitsubishi

Photo credit: Amir Ilan, Resident Chef at Aleph Farms

Aleph Farms Ltd. (Rehovot, Israel), a cultivator of whole-muscle steaks from non-genetically engineered cells isolated from cows, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mitsubishi Corporation’s Food Industry Group to bring cultivated meat to the Japanese table. Aleph Farms will provide its proven, scalable manufacturing platform called BioFarm, and Mitsubishi Corp. will provide its expertise in biotechnology processes, branded food manufacturing, and local distribution channels in Japan.

“The MoU with Mitsubishi Corporation’s Food Industry Group marks an important milestone for us, as we methodically build the foundations of our global go-to-market activities with selected partners,” says Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, in a press release. “The cooperation demonstrates Aleph Farms’ strategy of working together with the food and meat industries to ensure a successful integration of cultivated meat within the ecosystem, while maximizing the positive impact we make.”

The cooperation is part of an effort to fight climate change. The Japanese government recently stipulated a goal of achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions. In April 2020, Aleph Farms made its own commitment to eliminate emissions associated with its meat production by 2025, and reach the same net-zero emissions across its entire supply chain by 2030.

“This is part of a network of ‘BioFarm to Fork’ strategic partnerships being developed by Aleph Farms in APAC, LATAM, and Europe, following the successful 2019 Round-A strategic investment by Cargill and the Migros Group in Switzerland,” reports Gary Brenner, vice president of market development at Aleph Farms, in a press release.

Aleph Farms and Mitsubishi Corporation are members of the “Cellular Agriculture Study Group,” a consortium implementing policy proposals under the Japanese Center for Rule-Making Strategy. The consortium brings together a range of experts on the definition and construction of cellular agricultural foods, and adds clarification of conditions for Japanese products and technologies to have international competitiveness and establishes mechanisms for coexistence, and division of roles with existing industries.