Johannesburg, South Africa-based start-up Sea-Stematic – a company working on cell-based seafood production – says it is eyeing a share of the Chinese cell-based meat market through strategic partnerships with Chinese seafood manufacturers.
Sea-Stematic Founder and CEO Marica Quarsingh said in an interview with Supertrends magazine that although China has capacity to manufacture its own cell-based seafood, the country’s market for this particular protein source is “big enough” for her company to thrive there. Quarsingh said Sea-Stematic is exploring partnerships with Chinese seafood manufacturers in the drive to meet demand in the global market, where there's “lots of space for everyone.”
With less than 10 companies producing cell-based seafood globally, Quarsingh said there is more room for collaboration and less for competition, especially for cell-based seafood entrepreneurs keen on leveraging existing market drivers that Sea-Stematic identifies as “population dynamics, the negative impact of climatic challenges, [disease] outbreaks, and strained natural resources for producing animal-based foods.”
Quarsingh said Sea-Stematic is working to devleop cell lines of fish species to be grown through a glycan-based extra-cellular matrix-like media within the next two to four years. The product will then be supported with a plant-based scaffold.
Sea-Stematic's new project – dubbed "Mermaid X" – has ventured into uncharted seafood production territory in Africa that had only been preceded, albeit in different specialty, by cellular agriculture technology startup Mzansi Meat.
Msanzi Meat previously pioneered cell-based meat in South Africa with specialization in the use of a combination of animal-free biomaterials, hydrogels, plant cellulose, and yeast cultures “to engineer optimal scaffolds and develop traditional tastes.”
Conscientious consumers who have an inclination towards animal welfare and environmental sustainability could be attracted to Sea-Stematic's offerings as an alternative to animal meat products, Quarsingh said.
For Sea-Stematic, the ultimate goal for the planned commercialization of South Africa’s first seafood cultivation venture is to “satisfy the global consumer demand for fish, while addressing broader climatic and health issues through our company’s position," she said.
However, for start-ups like Sea-Stematic, developing a cell culture media remains a major cost driver that could account for between 50 percent and 80 percent of the enterprise’s total expenditure, according to Merck Group, a German multinational science and technology company.
