Over $700 Million Invested In Plant-Based Food In 2020 Already
Plant-based investments signal a changing food system amid slaughterhouse closures - with Trader Joes and even Dairy Queen the latest to add vegan versions of their best-selling products.
Credit: Beyond Meat
A new report reveals the staggering level of investment in plant-based food, as a record-breaking first quarter of 2020 raises almost as much investment as the entirety of an already financially-impressive 2019.
The report shows that US investment in plant-based meat, egg, and dairy companies jumped to an incredible $741 million in the first quarter of 2020 - that’s nearly as much as the whole of 2019, which saw $747 million investments in plant-based food across the full year.
Such figures are leading business analysts to report that the current pandemic is accelerating a “reshaping of the US meat market”, which will be led by plant-based protein. The demand for plant-based meat is currently soaring, as customers drive sales of meat substitutes 200 per cent higher than the year before. Fresh meat, on the other hand, saw sales rise just 30 per cent over the same period.
The biggest US brands are racing to meet the plant-based demand, too: new product launches just this week alone include the likes of Trader Joe’s adding another burger - the Turkeyless Protein Patties - to their range, and even Dairy Queen have just added a vegan version of its classic Dilly Bar, made using coconut milk.
“The coronavirus pandemic is reshaping the US meat market, with sales of plant-based substitutes surging while closures of slaughterhouses threaten production of the real thing”, reported Financial Times.
Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute, explained how the scales are shifting, telling Plant Based News that "the Covid-19 crisis has made bolstering our global protein supply more critical than ever, given the inherent - and now very apparent - vulnerability of supply chains dependent on industrial animal agriculture."
"Most of the conventional meat companies have reconstituted as protein companies, and nine of the 10 biggest have either launched or invested in plant-based meat, cultivated meat, or both”, Friedrich explained. "With historic pressures on conventional meat production, we expect to see the large meat conglomerates double down on their alternative protein investments."
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