Efko Group opens $3 mln biotechnology research center in UAE

MOSCOW, Dec 7 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Efko group, one of the country’s leading sauce and oil food industry companies, has launched a U.S. $3 million applied research center in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that would research biotechnologies for food production, a company representative told PRIME on Thursday.

“The applied research center unites a research and development facility and a biotechnology laboratory. It allows us to design new recipes and conduct full-scale scientific research that would help us, for instance, to expand the assortment of vegetarian meat and milk and to study the prospects of using healthy sugar alternatives like sweet proteins in different products,” the representative said.

The company chose the UAE as the center’s location because the country is one of the logistics and geographical centers of the world, and it makes work with the consumers from Africa, Middle East, and Asia more convenient. Efko was also the first company to certify a sweet protein in the UAE, the representative person said.

“The great interest of the country to healthy alternatives to sugar is explained by the fact that the rate of getting sick with diabetes in the Middle East is one of the highest in the world. Also, the region depends on exports of agricultural products from other countries because of the local climate,” the person added.

End