Posted on March 30th, 2020
The boom in the growth of plant-based foods has been skyrocketing over the last few years, and as a new decade dawns, the category, fueled by an a abundance of investments and product launches, shows no signs of slowing down. Analysts, in large part, forecast plant-based foods will preserve its growth into the broader marketplace, causing the intake of conventional meat and dairy to slowly decline.
Recent SPINS data, commissioned through The Good Food Institute, showed that U.S. retail sales of plant-based foods that replace animal products have increased. In fact the growth is 31% over the two-year period to reach nearly $4.5 billion as of July 2019.
Plant-based milk is the most advanced of all plant-based categories with overall total sales of $1.86 billion in April 2019, followed by plant-based meat at $801 million and ready-to-drink beverages at $103 million.
As the demand grows among consumers, UBS, a multinational diversified financial services company, predicts the U.S. sales of plant-based protein and meat substitute will grow from $4.6 billion in 2018 to $85 billion in 2030, at the same time the sales of plant-based dairy could possibly reach $37.5 billion in 2025.
Public and private companies see continued plant-based development in 2020. U.S. chocolate maker Hershey recently launched two varieties of plant-based jerky, Smoked Chipotle and Korean BBQ, under Krave. Hershey acquired the meat snacks brand from entrepreneur Jonathan Sebastiani in 2015 for approximately $200 million.
Kroger has also recently entered the alternative meat market this year with the launch of Simple Truth Emerge. The new brand provides 20g grams of pea protein per serving through its patties and grinds. Kroger also plans to launch 50 additional plant-based products under its Simple Truth brand in later 2020.
Kroger’s Vice President of Our Brands, Gil Phipps, notes the grocery chain will continue to be “at the intersection of plant-based curiosity and culinary innovation.” He said: “As more of our customers explore and embrace a flexitarian lifestyle, Simple Truth Emerge is a fresh innovation that provides a flavorful meat alternative that cooks comparably.”
It’s estimated that the global alternative meat market will reach $140 billion in sales over the next decade according to Barclays. This also drives ingredient companies such as Roquette to scale up their pea protein productions. In January, Roquette extended its pea protein supply agreement for three more years with the star plant-based meat company, Beyond Meat, that went public last May.
On the beverage side, Qatar Investment Authority and Powerplant Ventures led investments in January, $225 million in Califia Farms and and $7.5 million in OWYN, respectively. Starbucks is now in partnership with Oatly, under which it will add the latter’s vegan oat milk to the it’s 1,300 locations across the Midwest.
Chobani has recently launched Oat milk in four flavors which is being very well received.
The trend is red hot and we are going to be keeping our eyes on it and will report recent developments