Cell-based meat could boost the UK economy by 2.1 billion


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The UK economy is £ 2.1 billion at stake, and it depends on the government’s green light for its burgeoning cell-based meat sector. In a new report, researchers from Oxford Economics find the industry could create up to 16,500 new jobs by the end of the decade, warning that the UK risks “falling behind” current leaders like Singapore and Israel if regulatory developments change stalled.

New data from a study by Oxford Economics warn the UK government that failure to support the cultured meat sector could mean missing out on an economic gain of £ 2.1 billion. Commissioned by Oxford Spinout, cell-based food technology Ivy Farm estimates that with the right support, cell-based meat could make up 13% of the country’s agricultural sector and could create 16,500 new jobs by 2030.

Oxford Economics is a commercial enterprise of Oxford University Business College providing data forecasting and modeling to financial institutions and UK businesses.

Graphic from Ivy Farm & Oxford Economics

£ 2.1 billion at stake

Examining the economic contribution of the cell-based meat sector through domestic consumer spending by the end of the decade, researchers estimate the industry could reach £ 1.7 billion in the UK, which is up to £ 2.1 billion to the country’s GDP the entire associated value chain could contribute.

The industry will also have a positive impact on the UK economy as a whole, with experts anticipating a 3.6x GDP multiplier by 2030 added to support the rest of the UK economy that same year.

Of the 16,500 jobs the cell-based protein industry will support by 2030, roughly half – 8,300 workers – are expected to be directly employed by sophisticated meat producers. It will also have an “Employment Multiplier” of 2, which means that for every 100 new jobs the sector creates, there will be an additional 100 in various industries across the UK.

Approval of cell-based meat as a win-win scenario

Commenting on the results, Henry Worthington, director of business consultancy at Oxford Economics, said there was a clear conclusion that the cell-based meat industry “has strong growth potential in the UK and the significant economic presence that the market will support through the value chain”. . “

Source: Ivy Farm Technologies

“What is remarkable is that from every angle, the public policy rationale for regulatory approval of farmed meat seems compelling,” added Worthington.

Singapore is currently the only country that has given the go-ahead for the commercial sale of farmed meat. In December 2020, the country became the first country to approve Eat Just’s cultured chicken bites and has since given local Esco Aster the opportunity to produce cultured animal cell meat for commercial sale.

According to the Oxford Economics report, the UK’s cultured meat industry could also help add up to £ 523 million to the tax fund – but only if regulators, the Foods Standards Agency (FSA), allow commercial sales of. approves cultured proteins until the end of 2022 and thus keeps pace with developments in other countries internationally.

While Singapore is currently the only country with approval, countries like Israel, Qatar and the US have a supportive regulatory environment and have made several signs that approval is imminent.

Related: Cell-Based Meat Regulation in the US and Europe is Critical to Mass Market Entry – Report

Source: Aleph Farms

“We have to act quickly”

Rich Dillon, CEO of Ivy Farm, says the report is a strong warning to the UK government to stay one step ahead of its global competition if it is to lead an industry that will transform the world food system.

“This is the first time a definitive economic data set has been calculated for the UK meat industry and we urge the government and the FSA to study the report carefully,” said Dillon. “If we don’t act quickly, countries like Singapore, which have already approved cultured meat for consumption, will leave us in tow.”

“The environmental benefits of producing real meat without animal husbandry are well known, as are the benefits to animal welfare and human health,” he continued.

Ivy Farm’s technology is a GMO-free process in which animal cells are placed in a bioreactor and fed a mixture of minerals and vitamins needed for replication and growth. Within four weeks, muscle and fat cells can be harvested in its proprietary continuous system and used to develop cell-based meat that uses a fraction of the environmental resource compared to animal husbandry production methods.

Source: Higher Steaks

The Oxford startup plans to bring its cultured sausage and pork to market by 2023, possibly being the first in the country.

The British fellow startup CellulaREvolution, a spin-out from Newcastle University, has developed a similar continuous production system for cell-based meat. In Cambridge, Animal Alternative Technologies (AAT) developed an AI-powered “Renaissance Farm” system to help other companies produce cultured meat, which was co-founded by a former employee of Cambridge-based pork belly maker Higher Steaks.

Dillon says the emerging cultured meat ecosystem in the UK can turn the country into an “alternative protein powerhouse, exporting our products and technologies around the world and reducing the UK’s reliance on imported meat”.


Mission statement courtesy of Ivy Farm.

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