Cultured meat could be sold in Switzerland in three years’ time
The retiring CEO of Bell Food Group, Lorenz Wyss, expects burgers made from cultured meat to be available in Switzerland in around three years' time.
“However, you probably won’t be able to buy the products in supermarkets straight away, but in restaurants first,” he noted.
In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung published on Friday, the Bell boss explained that it is possible that only individual components, such as fat, will be cultured to begin with. Bell acquired a stake in the Dutch cultured beef producer Mosa Meat in 2018 and expanded this holding in 2020.
The original goal of offering a burger made from cultured meat for CHF10 ($11) by 2021 has since been abandoned. But that’s the same for everyone in the industry, according to Wyss. Nevertheless, the CEO, who is stepping down from his role at the end of June after 13 years, reaffirmed his commitment to the company’s aims in this area: “If the technology works, it will be a real addition to traditional meat production, and we have to be part of it.”
+ Cultured meat: Revolution or hype?
However, Wyss now takes a critical view of the group’s other investments abroad. “A large part of this would probably no longer be done today,” he said. Large parts of the German company Zimbo, for example, have been divested over time. “The high expectations of being able to sell specialities such as Thuringian bratwurst at a reasonable price on the German market were not met by a long shot.”
On the other hand, the purchase of German ham specialist Abraham and a focus on ham paid off. “We have a market share of 20% to 25% and can talk to retailers on an equal footing,” said Wyss.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kc
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
More
Why Switzerland is among the ten fastest-warming countries in the world
More
In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?
More
Suicides in Switzerland quadruple among older people
More
French gangs target luxury cars in Switzerland
More
Renewed controversy in Switzerland over US fighter jets – explained
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.