The startup aims to further stabilise the global supply chain of Next Meats products
Next Meats Co, the alternative meat venture company from Tokyo known for commercialising the world’s first vegan Japanese barbecue meat analogues, has revealed the plan to start the construction of their eco-friendly production facility called the “NEXT Factory”, in Niigata, Japan, which is the hometown of Ryo Shirai, one of the two co-founders.
This factory will be a one-stop hub dedicated to alternative protein products and will include everything from an R&D lab to the production line. This kind of large-scale facility specifically dedicated to the development of alternative proteins is likely to be the first of its kind in Japan.
The startup aims to further stabilise the global supply chain of Next Meats products while lowering retail costs and strengthening the company’s R&D capacities.
Next Meats is working with a local construction firm that uses materials sourced from the area, and is scheduled to co-produce a new product with Kameda Seika—one of the most prominent snack manufacturers in Japan, which is from Niigata—and they have also recently signed a cooperative research and development agreement with Nagaoka University of Technology, to study epigenetics and its new applications in developing alternative meat products.
