Calysseo, the joint venture between Calysta and Adisseo, has partnered with Food Caravan, a business and projects development company focused on protein and animal feed, to build a new alternative protein facility in Al Jubail, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The partners, who have formalized their intent to move forward with a development in the country, are aiming to build a 100,000 tonnes fermenter to produce Calysta’s protein, FeedKind®.
The announcement of the new FeedKind® production facility, which is expected to start operating by the end of 2026, comes after Calysseo started operation at its 20,000 tonnes fermenter in China, which will produce FeedKind® for the aquaculture market. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia facility would be five times the size of the current Chinese facility.
“Our mission is to help the world meet one of its most pressing goals, feeding a global population that’s set to hit 10 billion by 2050. To do that, we need more sustainable protein, and to produce protein in places we are not currently able to. That’s what’s so exciting about the possibility of a Calysseo facility in KSA,” said Alan Shaw, CEO, president, and co-founder of Calysta. “This would be our second industrial-scale plant and an important step in delivering enough sustainable protein to meet the growing and pressing global demand. Our patented fermentation technology is proven to produce a high-quality protein ingredient and thanks to the efficiencies of using a naturally occurring bacteria process, we are ready to rapidly scale up and meet that demand.”
“Today’s announcement is another significant milestone as we quickly move towards more sustainable forms of producing protein. Calysseo is something we’re incredibly proud of, we’re committed to building on this valuable partnership with Calysta as we focus on bringing the next phase of development forward,” said Jean-Marc Dublanc, CEO at Adisseo, part of the Sinochem Group. “Together with Calysta, we share an ongoing commitment to improving the security and sustainability of the feed ingredient market, our facilities fulfill a considerable part of that promise.”
The project, which relies on the support of the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia and the National Industrial Development Centre, received a gas allocation from the Kingdom’s Ministry of Energy and a site has been nominated by the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu.
“The Kingdom as a protein producer is a paradigm shift for the world. We’re excited to progress plans to move forward with our second Calysseo facility, so soon after announcing startup activities at our Chongqing factory in China. Another milestone is exciting, expanding a new era of food and feed security,” said Dennis Leong, co-managing director at Calysseo.
“From a national perspective, this project comes in full alignment with the Saudi 2030 vision. It also complements the Kingdom's initiatives to ensure food security, reduce global emissions, create jobs for Saudi nationals, and bring advanced technology to the Kingdom. Not to mention it’s a disruptive solution to the food supply chain globally,” said Saleh Al-Shabnan, CEO at Food Caravan.
