The exclusive patent, awarded in February by the US Patent and Trademark Office, protects the company’s intellectual property and covers the methods and systems Wilk developed for the cultivation and separation of milk components from cultured cells, as the company now turns its focus on processes that increase production volume, said Wilk CEO Tomer Aizen.

For the animal-derived cultured milk, Wilk uses mammal cells “that are then grown and cultivated” in bioreactors, combined with a “secret sauce,” Aizen told The Times of Israel in a videoconference interview in February, referring to processes based on a decade of proprietary research by Dr. Nurit Argov-Argaman and Maggie Levy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Prof. Sivan has gained major knowhow in isolating cells from living tissues of fish in order to raise them. She was approached by Dr. Orna Harel who for years had been thinking about developing cultured fish. They were joined by Dr. Itai Tzchori, an expert in fish stem cells and Pablo Resnik who has been involved in international trade in fish and seafood. They set up the start up in the Fresh Start incubator, a partnership of Tnuva, Tempo, OurCrowd and Finister.

While stem cells of mammals have been produced for many years, partly in research institutes, there are very few fish stem cells produced. Sea2Cell is first of all building a massive stem cell production capacity, which can be transferred under concessions for other companies to manufacture the products. The aim is blue tuna. "Prof. Sivan said, "Even if we prevent the killing of one tuna, we would have achieved something."

Tuna is overfished worldwide and attempts to raise them in captivity have failed.

The number, he told The Times of Israel, was taken from the European Union, where there are large tracts of pasture land, and in no way reflects the tens of thousands of shekels poured into intensive vegetable and fruit farming. “If prices go down as a result of lowering the tariffs, people will simply abandon their farms,” he warned.

Kimhi noted that fruit and vegetable prices in Israel are still cheaper on average than in other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — 5% cheaper in the OECD’s most recent analysis, carried out in 2017.

In Europe, the process of moving to direct payments to farmers took two decades. “Lowering import tariffs is right but you need to do it slowly, carefully, and to stop each time and review the result. Five years is too fast,” said Kimhi.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3906977,00.html