Collaboration to scale up manufacturing capacity between Cell AgriTech and Umami Bioworks.
It’s no coincidence that this factory was announced during a session titled “Complementary Proteins: Accelerating Climate-Resilient Foods Through Regional Collaboration.” In addition to enhancing Southeast Asia’s alternative protein landscape, this facility is a tangible example of the kind of international collaboration GFI APAC experts believe will be necessary to help cultivated meat manufacturing scale up globally.
n this new partnership, each company will leverage its particular areas of expertise. UMAMI Bioworks will develop the core production technologies, including the cell lines, growth media, and modular, automated production lines, while Cell AgriTech focuses on improving yields and operational efficiencies. Add in the fact that the facility will benefit from comparatively lower operational costs due to its location in a high-tech, purpose-built industrial zone—rather than a pricier downtown urban core—and it all adds up to a smarter, leaner system for mass production of novel foods.
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The global cultivated meat sector has faced its fair share of setbacks this year, as misinformation fuels populist backlashes against food technology in some countries, and VCs pull back on investments of all kinds—including alt proteins. This has forced some startups to face agonising decisions about where they can cut back, right at the moment when they want to be scaling up.
But transforming the global food system is a relay race, not a sprint.With more than 150 companies operating in the cultivated meat sector worldwide, every startup in the space is contributing to creating a foundation for others to build upon—and build we must.
Against that backdrop, this new partnership between key industry stakeholders in Singapore and Malaysia can serve as an instructive model for how all nations can lean into their respective strengths, and collaboratively usher in the future of food.
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EXCITING NEWS: Cell AgriTech and Umami Bioworks will be scaling up their manufacturing capacity through the construction of a massive new cultivated meat factory in Malaysia! 🤝
Mere moments ago, during a panel moderated by GFI APAC Managing Director Mirte Gosker, it was jointly announced by Jason Ng, Manufacturing Vice President of Malaysian startup Cell AgriTech, and Mihir Pershad, CEO of Singapore’s UMAMI Bioworks, that together they will be scaling up their manufacturing capacity through the construction of a massive new cultivated meat and seafood factory in Kedah, Malaysia.
The new facility—scheduled to open in phases beginning in Q1 2025, in the Kulim Hi-Tech Park—will span 96,000 square feet and have a projected annual output of more than 3,000 tons of cultivated meat or seafood. It will contain up to five full-scale production lines when completed, and the building will be powered in part by solar energy.