SINGAPORE, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Plant-based egg substitute startup Eat Just Inc said on Tuesday it had partnered with a consortium led by Proterra Investment Partners Asia to build a plant protein production facility in Singapore to serve the Asian market.
The consortium will invest up to $100 million and Eat Just will invest up to $20 million to build and operate the factory, its first in Asia.
“Once built, the first factory will generate thousands of metric tons of protein, adding to existing large-scale protein facilities in North America and Germany,” Eat Just said in a statement.
The San Francisco-based start-up makes a mung bean-based egg substitute that comes in bottles and looks like beaten fresh eggs. Eat Just, which also makes a mayonnaise substitute, sells its products in stores including Walmart WMT.N, Kroger KR.N and Whole Foods.
Its existing distribution partners in Asia include South Korea’s SPC Samlip and Thailand’s Betagro.
Demand for plant-based meat substitutes and proteins has grown as customers have become increasingly health conscious and are concerned about the environmental impact of industrial animal farming.
Singapore, a densely populated city-state that produces only about 10% of its food needs plans to increase that proportion as climate change and population growth threaten global food supplies.
(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; editing by David Evans)
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