CarobWay offers sustainable carob-based product development

FoodTech and agriTech start-up CarobWay, Ltd. cultivates locally grown carob trees to boost carob-based product development.

The start-up was founded by Udi Alroy, Guido Schaer, and Jeff Lahav. The team offers sustainable, advanced agriculture, while guaranteeing fair-trade return to the growers, citing a  beneficial system all partners in the supply chain.

CarobWay will utilize the whole carob and market each ingredient toward different food applications and uses. For example, carob provides a natural sweetener suitable for beverages. The sugar is low glycemic index (GI) while still being very sweet, provides energy, and is a good fit for people with diabetes or digestive health issues. Carob also contains high-value, functional protein that can enhance a variety of food and beverage products. Carob fibers can be used to excellent effect in cereals and bars. This super fruit contains high nutritional value, is gluten-free and non-allergic. It is extensively researched around the world and has no regulatory barriers.

“The key ingredient in developing a sustainable carob crop is using advanced agriTech knowhow to grow the trees more intensively and efficiently,” explains Udi Alroy, CEO and Co-founder of CarobWay in a statement. “Today, most carob trees are grown in forests and require intensive human labor. We optimize the cultivation process from the seedling stage through harvest, using less labor, refined irrigation, and mechanical harvesting.” CarobWay will employ industrialized harvesting via a variety of technologies developed from other crops cultivated in the region.

Carob can grow on non-arable land—including deserts—where no other crops can grow without significant, often unsustainable investments. “We can potentially grow this super-crop on arid land, which covers 46 percent of the surface of the planet,” states Alroy.

CarobWay takes its eco-supportive model even further. The company’s business model is founded on long-term business relationships. “Growers should get a safe, stable income as they invest in the future of food,” explains Alroy. “With climate change, increasing wildfires, and diminishing water supplies, farmers are on the frontline, taking all the responsibility in the supply chain. We’re going to change that, by creating a complete value chain that is beneficial to all partners involved from grove to table. We are currently establishing long-term business arrangements with global partners.”

CarobWay engages in multi-annual supply agreements to enable a stable and secure supply chain of a variety of healthy ingredients derived from carob for food and supplement manufacturers around the world. “This focus on ownership of the whole-value chain from farm to fork enables us to provide fully controlled, sustainable products on a continuous basis,” Guido Schaer, Co-founder and CTO.

Global warming, environmental stresses, and other limitations demand increased attention to minor or neglected crops, especially a multifunctional crop such as carob. Carob is a highly resilient species of tree that flourishes in arid climates, mostly in Africa and Asia. Genotypes of the carob tree demonstrate great tolerance to drought, low soil fertility, brackish water, pollution, and high temperatures (up to 50°C).