MAY 28, 2023 BY ROCKY KISTNER
Experts say there are financial speedbumps ahead for Israeli food tech and environmental startups like Dayts, especially as Israel endures a period of unprecedented political unrest.
Michael Ofran, a date and vegetable farmer from the Arava, rode his bike home one morning a few years ago when he took a wrong turn and got lost in the broiling desert. It seemed the more water he drank, the hotter and sicker he felt.
When he finally made it home, his sister reminded him that he needed more than just water to battle the heat. His body needed minerals, electrolytes, and other essential nutrients, too. Ofran began thinking about the date trees on his farm. Could dates, the nutritious and revered blessed fruit of the Bible and the Koran, become a superfood for the modern era?
Now, several years later, Ofran and his colleagues say the answer is a resounding “Yes.” His Israeli startup company, Dayts, is getting seed money from global investors to develop new date-based natural ingredients for use as shelf-life extenders and nutritional supplements for everything from meat products to baked goods. They also have plans to use the natural antioxidant power of dates in industries, such as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
What’s more, their food products can use waste materials from a variety of dates that most farmers ignore or discard, saving energy and reducing climate-altering emissions like methane.
That could have a big climate-fighting potential for the growing $13 billion (NIS 48.5b.) global date palm industry. And as the climate gets hotter, date trees are better acclimated to the heat and will suffer less than other crops, making them an ideal fruit in the era of climate change.
