Upington is set to become a major algal biotechnology cluster, with one key investment confirmed and several more in the pipeline.

Venture capital fund Bioventures and Cape Biotech, a government-funded body that promotes biotechnology development, recently announced investments in Natural Carotenoids South Africa (NCSA). NCSA uses CSIR-developed technology to produce natural carotenoids, powerful anti-oxidant substances much in demand in the health, food and cosmetics industries, from algae.

A pilot plant has been running here for several years. With loan funding from Cape Biotech and an equity investment from Bioventures, NCSA is now set to construct a full-scale production facility.

"Currently a lot of the carotenoids used in food, health supplements and cosmetics are artificial," said NCSA's Bevan Jones.

"The natural product commands a premium on global markets, but there are very few places in the world that have the right conditions for growing the algae so supply is restricted. It's a major export opportunity for us."

"Upington is hot and dry with high UV radiation all year round," said Cape Biotech CEO Dr Mark Fyvie. "It's an ideal environment for algae-based biotechnology development."

The algae are cultivated in large ponds fed by water from the Orange (Gariep) River, with extremely low rainfall enabling tight control of the growing conditions.

Upington's low levels of pollution are an added bonus, as the algae will be untainted by pollutants, improving the quality of the naturally-derived carotenoids.

NCSA will initially produce beta- carotene biomass and later formulated products from a single celled algae, Dunaliella salina. But with this plant acting as the anchor tenant for a future biotechnology hub in Upington, work is already far advanced on developing technologies to isolate individual carotenoids as well as grow other algae species, such as Spirulina.

A community Spirulina plant is already being planned. Other sought- after carotenoids that could soon be produced in Upington include lutein and astaxanthin both reported to have health benefits as well as being used in cosmetics and as food colourants.

Fyvie says algal biotechnology is one of Cape Biotech's five key strategic focus areas for biotech development. The others are diagnostics, vaccines, drug delivery alternatives and bio- prospecting.

"Biotechnology has given us the perfect way to turn the region's weaknesses into assets, said Bioventures' Dr Heather Sherwin.