Hellman-Aldoubi Technologies, four Israeli start-ups in the field of food-tech and one of the leading universities in Morocco signed an agreement to promote a project that aims to provide the protein consumption of 10 million Moroccans per day.

Roni Hellman, founder and CEO of Hellman-Aldoubi Technologies: “We are proud to lead a 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 vision of the King of Morocco.”

For the first time since the signing of the Abraham Accords, and in general, Israeli companies will begin operating in the Moroccan Sahara. This is a territory in North West Africa that was annexed by Morocco in 1979 and was recognized by Israel and the USA, as a part of the agreement led by US President Trump. In this framework, a consortium of four start-ups in the field of food tech, led by the Hellman-Aldoubi Technologies company and in cooperation with one of the leading universities in Morocco, signed an agreement to promote a project that aims to provide the protein consumption of 10 million people per day. Israeli companies in the field of growing algae, extracting protein from insects, separating organic waste and extracting protein from organic waste will take part in the project.

Morocco, like many countries in Africa, suffers from instability and uncertainty in everything related to food, and especially in the area of protein consumption. As part of the vision of the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, and as part of his plan to promote food security in the country, Morocco has set itself an ambitious goal of a significant increase in the amount of edible fish in Morocco’s ponds. The state intends to reach an annual volume of 350,000 tons of fish per year. This is compared to about the incomplete figure currently propagated in ponds in the country.

However, beyond the logistical aspects of realizing the vision, Morocco suffers from currency problems and a trade deficit. Therefore, the country is not able to provide the amount of feed needed for fish farming, and is not able to import fish food from abroad in the required volumes.

This is in addition to the logistical difficulties and the problems in the supply chain involved in importing such volumes. An agreement signed by Hellman-Aldoubi Technologies with the Moroccan UM6P University came to give a solution to this problem and to produce available, local and sustainable food for fish. In the project, which is led by Hellman-Aldobi Technologies, the four mentioned Israeli start-up companies operating in the field of food-tech will take part: the start-up Sikora, which operates in the field of growing algae in a brackish environment and which has developed a technology, protected by a patent, for growing high-protein algae; the Shahar Group, which developed a smart technology, based on artificial intelligence, to separate organic waste from non-organic waste; the FREEZME company, which developed a technology for producing protein from insects; and the Celitron company, which developed a technology for producing pure protein from organic waste.

UM6P Mohammed VI Polytechnic University is located near the city of Marrakesh. The university, owned by the world’s largest phosphate company OCP, operates several campuses throughout Morocco, including in Laayoune-the largest city in the Moroccan Sahara, with approximately 350,000 inhabitants. The campus focuses on research and the development of food solutions in a desert and saline environment (saline agriculture) and consists of a multidisciplinary team of agronomists, biochemists, molecular biologists, bioprocess experts, animal scientists, e.t.c.

As a part of the project, the university, in cooperation with the Israeli companies, will develop fish food, high in proteins, from organic municipal waste, larvae and algae. The project will make use of the separation of the municipal waste produced in the city of La Ayan, the largest city in the Moroccan Sahara, and the transformation of the organic waste into a substrate for breeding larvae. The larvae themselves, in a natural form or after they become a protein powder, will be used as food for fish, food that can be easily transported all over Morocco. At the same time, algae, which originates from the Atlantic Ocean along the shores of which the university campus is located, will be adapted to grow in ponds on land, in the extreme climate conditions and salinity that prevails in the Moroccan Sahara. These algae will also be used later as a basis for preparing food and high in protein, for the larvae and for the fish.

Hellman-Aldobi Technologies, founded and managed by Dr. Roni Hellman, is the innovation arm of the Hellman-Aldobi Group that operates in diverse fields including finance, energy, climate, real estate, food-tech and technology. The company operates worldwide, with an emphasis on the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, and focuses on providing integrated solutions to the problems of the climate crisis and its consequences, including the food crisis that threatens many countries. The company has exclusive agreements with leading Israeli technology companies in the fields of food-tech and climate and agreements to promote projects in various countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The company recently reported on another agreement it signed in Morocco with the giant Japanese conglomerate, CO. & MITSUI, which operates a huge slaughterhouse and meat processing plant in Casablanca. The agreement includes the recycling of the organic waste produced from the plant and its transformation into “protein flour” that will be transported to Japan and sold to the food industry. Also in this agreement Israeli technologies will be used.

Dr. Roni Hellman, CEO and founder of Hellman-Aldoubi Technologies said, “we are happy to continue to implement the Abraham agreements and be the first to operate in the Moroccan Sahara. As a company specializing in providing integrative solutions, we are proud to lead a consortium that will implement unique Israeli food tech technologies, technologies that will transform one of the most challenging regions in Africa, from a food importer to a producer of available and sustainable food, and to support the realization of the vision of the King of Morocco.”

Source: Agronet.co.il