NEW YORK -- Champions of plant-based meat see an opportunity to make inroads with American shoppers in the wake of coronavirus outbreaks at US slaughterhouses that have pressured meat supply.
Prices of conventional protein have surged in recent weeks following the temporary closure of at least 18 meat processing plants in the US at a time of already-elevated demand due to panic buying and pantry loading.
The upshot is that producers of plant-based steaks, nuggets and sausages see a chance to win over shoppers from a broader set of consumers.
"Relative to higher prices in the protein market today, we can make significant inroads into consumers and help them expand their choices of proteins," Beyond Meat Chief Executive Ethan Brown said this week.
Brown added that the company plans "heavier discounting" of some products to make them more competitive with old-fashioned meat.
Another emerging player in plant-based meat, Impossible Foods, also from California, this week launched in Kroger, the nation's biggest grocery chain.
The move expands the retail footprint by 18-fold to 2,700 retail locations, said the company, which boasts that its products can be used in stews, sauces or on a barbecue.
"We are moving as quickly as possible to expand with additional outlets and in more retail channels," said Impossible Foods President Dennis Woodside.
Part of the opportunity is that the disruptions from coronavirus comes on the heels of the hit from African swine fever, which has hit Asia's pork supply.
"Agricultural challenges in commodity crop production and processing will be slower to percolate into the food chain, meaning plant-based burgers and chicken alternatives have a window of opportunity right now to present themselves as more reliable alternatives –- or potentially the only choice –- next to empty meat cases in grocery stores," said Sara Olsen of Lux Research.
UPHEAVAL PRESENTS TEST, OPPORTUNITY
Though growing fast, alternative meat accounts for just a tiny portion of the current market.
Beyond Meat estimates that its products have reached just 3.6 percent of US households. The company's revenues in the just-ended quarter more than doubled to $97.1 million, but that is still a pittance compared to the $10.1 billion reported by Tyson Foods in the same period.
But COVID-19 has exposed the meat processing plants as a weak link in the supply chain, denting supply at a time of intense demand.
Fresh beef sales rose by more than 45 percent and chicken by more than 40 percent over the last eight weeks compared with last year, according to Nielsen.
US slaughterhouses have emerged as outbreak hotspots in several states, compelling plant closures, especially for pork and beef. Crowded workspaces are common at the plants, making social distancing difficult.
The Farm Bureau has estimated that pork processing capacity has been reduced by as much as 20 percent and beef processing capacity as much as ten percent.
Costco this week became the latest big grocer to limit consumer meat purchases, joining Kroger and Wegmans.
On Wednesday, fast-food chain Wendy's said some of its restaurants have stopped offering beef products online because of tight supply, prompting it to shift to marketing around chicken for which supplies are more robust.
Alternative meat companies have not been immune from upheaval amid COVID-19.
Beyond Meat withdrew its 2020 financial forecast due to COVID-19 uncertainty and said it had seen a big drop-off in demand from restaurants and other food-service customers that had led it to reroute products to retail stores where sales have been strong. The company will also go slow on some new product launches, such as breakfast sausage offering.
But Beyond Meat's Brown expressed confidence in the company's prospects
"There is an opportunity for the consumer to become more aware of a different model of doing this," he said. "And we want to be as aggressive as we can to provide the consumer with that additional option."
Agence France-Presse
HONG KONG - Demand for plant-based protein foods is surging in Asia, suppliers say, as suspicion over possible links between wild animal meat and the new coronavirus drives some consumers, particularly in Hong Kong and mainland China, to rethink diets.
Though still a tiny business compared to Asia's giant meat supply chain, vegetarian alternatives to meat, dairy and seafood are gaining growing custom from people like Hong Kong-based fitness trainer Mike Lee.
"Because of the coronavirus, people have started to pay more attention to their diet and health," said Lee, 40, serving up burritos in his kitchen made using a plant-based pork alternative. "People now are more afraid of getting sick."
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, consultancy Euromonitor last year predicted China's 'free from meat' market, including plant-based products meant to replace meat, would be worth nearly $12 billion by 2023, up from just under $10 billion in 2018.
That had already attracted interest from leading US players like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, with coffee chain Starbucks Corp and Yum China's KFC fast food chain announcing plans this week to get in on the act with plant-based product promotions.
"Ironically and unfortunately we have such a dramatic outbreak, devastating everyone and everywhere, which becomes this massive catalyst," said David Yeung, founder of Hong Kong-based Green Monday, which supplies products from Beyond Meat across Asia. The global death toll from the pandemic has now topped 170,000, with more than 4,600 reported dead in mainland China.
Amid restaurant closures, social distancing restrictions and growing numbers of people cooking more at home, online food purchases have surged in many markets in Asia: Distributors say plant-based goods, mostly priced competitively compared with animal products, have proved no exception. Many parts of Asia have long used non-meat ingredients like tofu to produce meat-like food experiences.
'OMNIPORK', MUNG BEAN EGGS
China remains the world's biggest consumer of meat, with a retail value equal to roughly $170 billion annually, according to Euromonitor. On that scale, meat will dwarf alternative products for many years to come.
But Green Monday's Yeung said his company's online sales have more than doubled in the last 2 months, citing the impact of the coronavirus: Among the most popular purchases is a pork substitute called Omnipork, used in dumplings, noodles and rice, while Beyond burgers, plant-based chicken nuggets and non-dairy milks have also been doing well, he said.
JUST, a San Francisco-based company that makes egg products from mung beans, says its sales on Chinese ecommerce platforms JD.com and Tmall of JUST Egg have surged 30 percent since the coronavirus outbreak.
At Impossible Foods, Nick Halla, senior vice president for international, said China's need for meat options was growing rapidly and the country is their most important target market globally.
Impossible Foods is working through the regulatory process to enter mainland China but debuted its replacement beef product to 40,000 consumers in November last year at a trade show in Shanghai.
Meanwhile restaurant firm Yum China's KFC chain will sell plant-based fried chicken for the first time in China at 3 outlets in a promotion between April 28 and 30. The nuggets will be supplied by US agribusiness giant Cargill Ltd.
And Starbucks said on Monday it would roll out a new plant-based lunch menu in China this week, launching Beyond Meat's products. The world's biggest coffee chain has now reopened most of its stores in China.
CHINA'S BEYOND MEAT?
Online food group Deliveroo, which delivers meals including Impossible burgers around Hong Kong, said first-quarter growth in orders of vegan food in the city matched a doubling in orders of other food compared with a year earlier.
On the mainland, China's Zhenmeat - sometimes referred to by state media as the country's answer to Beyond Meat - is betting on sales booming once restaurants resume normal business across the country.
Vince Lu, chief executive and founder, said the company is planning to expand into Shanghai and Shenzhen from Beijing, where it currently sells its beef substitute products in 50 restaurants.
"After the coronavirus, Chinese people have more consciousness not to eat wild animals and eat the right sources of protein," said Lu.
In his Hong Kong kitchen, fitness trainer Lee said the coronavirus has brought huge change to life in the city, including dining habits.
"One year ago, when we were sick, no matter it was cold, flu or fever, we still went out with friends and ate hotpot together with no problem at all," he said. "But now if you have a mild sore throat, when you cough a bit, people next to you will jump ten meters away from you."
-reuters-
NEW YORK - Music's first couple Beyonce and Jay-Z are encouraging fans to go vegan for a month with a contest to give one lucky winner a lifetime of free tickets to their shows.
Queen Bey announced the challenge to her 123 million Instagram followers late Wednesday, saying it was in support of the Greenprint Project that promotes adopting even a partial vegan diet to limit environmental footprints.
Fans can sign up for the contest online and one will be chosen at random to win a pair of tickets annually for 30 years to concerts by Beyonce and/or Jay-Z, an estimated retail value of $12,000.
The superstar known for her groundbreaking "Lemonade" album said she was going meatless on Mondays and eating plant-based breakfasts, while husband and rap mogul Jay-Z vowed 2 of his daily meals would be plant-based.
Beyonce's personal trainer, Marco Borges, is behind the project. The superstar musicians wrote the introduction to his December book elaborating on its vision.
The pop-inflected R&B idol has been vocal about embracing veganism in the past, having adopted the diet prior to her stunning May 2018 performance at the Coachella music festival one year after giving birth to twins.
She is joined by fellow singers Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande in promoting veganism, which prohibits consumption of all animal products including meat, dairy products, eggs and honey as well as wearing leather.
Research has shown that cutting meat and dairy products can boost the planet's health by reducing farmland use and planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
