Top Stories
Fish food in the Sahara, latest in Israel-Morocco relations
April 09, 2023
Israeli startups will help develop the food from organic municipal waste, insects and algae
Building on the Abraham Accords, Israel and Morocco will bring a consortium of four food-tech startups to the Moroccan Sahara. A local university and the Israeli companies will cooperate in an effort to boost food production in the region.
Halman-Aldubi Technologies will lead the Israeli delegation in the agreement with a leading university in Morocco, the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P). The project aims to provision the protein consumption of ten million people.
The Israeli companies will bring their experience in various areas of the food-tech sector. SEAKURA developed a technology for growing high-protein algae; FREEZEM has a hi-tech process of generating protein from insects; the SHR Group has an artificial intelligence (AI) based system for separating organic waste from non-organic waste; and Celitron R&D focuses on producing pure protein from organic waste.
Morocco, like many countries in Africa, suffers from food insecurity, especially in the area of protein-rich foods. Morocco's King Mohammed VI has set an ambitious goal of significantly increasing the amount of edible fish farms.
However, the country is not able to provide the amount of food needed for fish farming, and is not able to import fish food from abroad in the required volumes. The multinational agreement comes as a solution to this problem, with the goal of producing local and sustainable food for fish.
"We are proud to lead the consortium that will implement unique Israeli food-tech technologies in one of the most challenging regions in Africa and to support the realization of the King’s vision," said Roni Halman, founder and CEO of Halman-Aldubi Technologies.
Israel and Morocco agreed to normalize relations in December 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords.
The two countries promised to collaborate on AI, water desalination, desert technologies, food processing technologies, biotechnology, renewable energy, medical technologies and the pharmaceutical industry, smart cities, the automotive industry, information technology, and the social sciences.