Brazil's JBS, the world's largest protein producer, has bought shares in Spain's Biotech Foods. With an investment of €36 million, it has become the majority shareholder, according to a press release. The new company has become one of the largest projects for producing cultivated proteins.  Thanks to this capital injection, Biotech will build the first industrial plant in Spain for cultured meat. In addition, JBS will build the first research and development centre in Brazil for cultured proteins.

BioTech Foods recognises that the  JBS acquisition "will facilitate an enormous leap in the growth of BioTech Foods, with the construction of a new manufacturing unit in Spain that will scale up production and give continuity to R&D with highly qualified professional profiles, according to Íñigo Charola, co-founder and CEO of BioTech Foods.  Joining forces means boosting this market as "JBS now has access to BioTech Foods' technology and protein production for consumer product development, and we will have JBS's  industrial processing capacity, marketing structure and sales channels to bring cultured meat to the international market," he added.  

Gilberto Tomazoni, CEO of JBS, said, "This acquisition reinforces our strategy of developing new forms of production to meet the growing global demand for food as a result of population growth in the coming decades”.

BioTech Foods was founded in 2017 by Íñigo Charola and Mercedes Vila Járez. The company is a leader in the development of biotechnology for cultured meat production. 

^{Photo: BioTech Food}