Billionaire investor Jim Mellon has revealed plans to bring large-scale “clean food” manufacturing to the Middle East, positioning the UAE as a future global hub for precision-fermented proteins and oils and potentially transforming food security in one of the world’s most import-dependent regions.
Mr Mellon, whose portfolio spans longevity science and large-scale food technology, said his group is working with sovereign wealth funds, family offices and food manufacturers to establish local production capacity.
“I think in the early new year, we’ll have something that we can announce to the world,” Mr Mellon, the chairman of Burnbrae Group and the founder of food security investment and operations platform New Agrarian, told The National at Abu Dhabi Finance Week.
Geopolitical urgency and commercial opportunity are motivators for the Middle East push. The UAE imports around 95 per cent of its food, according to government data and Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates.
Mr Mellon said clean-food technologies could dramatically reduce that vulnerability.
“My view is that Abu Dhabi, the UAE in general could be producing all its protein requirements within 10 years and not having to import anything,” he said.
Why the UAE, and why now?
Mr Mellon said the region offers a rare alignment of need, capital a
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