IFFCO Group launches GCC’s first 100% plant-based meat venture

Dubai: IFFCO Group has launched Thryve, the region’s first plant-based venture to accelerate the shift towards sustainable and healthy sources of food, it said on Tuesday.

The group plans to commission its first 100 per cent plant-based meat factory by early 2023, it said.

“We have embarked on our journey by investing in cutting-edge food technology and are committed to catalysing a sustainable shift in the food system in the Middle East,” Andrey Dribny, CEO-Culinary at IFFCO Group, said.

Enhancing accessibility to alternative proteins is the “most capital-efficient and high-impact” solution to today’s climate crisis, according to a new report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which suggests more than 30 per cent of consumers are willing to fully swap-out meat.

The impact of the increased global meat consumption is monumental. Though livestock provides livelihoods and critical nutrients to millions, it comes with a high environmental cost. With 75 per cent of all agricultural land used for animal production and more than a third of global calories and half of the worldwide protein inefficiently used as animal feed, the transition from animal products to plant-based alternatives could contribute to at least three of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: good health and well-being, responsible consumption and production, and climate action.

Established in 1975, IFFCO is an international UAE-based group which manufactures and markets a range of innovative food products, related derivatives, intermediates, and services.