According to the results of an investigation carried out by the Good Food Institute (GFI), an organization that works to help develop food projects that are innovative, safe and respectful of health and the environment, vegetable "meat" is close to price parity with animal meat , which will facilitate an increase in the number of consumers who decide to try these alternative products to meat.
According to research, price is the second most important factor in consumers' purchasing decisions, in 2020 the sale of so-called 'vegetable meats' increased by 45%, despite the fact that they are up to twice as expensive than beef, three times more expensive than pork, and four times more expensive than chicken. For this reason, achieving price parity is very important , since it would favor a significant increase in sales , retaining more consumers.
But matching prices has its complications, in the case of traditional meat, prices have been kept relatively low thanks to the large-scale production of animals, government subsidies, regulations that benefit the sector, etc. In contrast, the plant-based “meat” industry is relatively new, does not have the same infrastructure, is not subsidized as the animal-derived meat industry, and faces some legislative complications, some created by the meat sector itself. an attempt to curb the growth of plant-based alternatives .
Some producers believe that making the plant-based 'meat' supply chain more efficient and able to deal with complications makes it easier to reduce production costs and thus make their products more affordable to consumers. the consumers. This line of work is a priority for producers who have seen how year after year sales have been increasing, in this regard, it is worth reading this post again to find out how much the market grew in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
As we mentioned, the price of alternative products to meat is the second important factor for consumers, they consider that it should be equal to or less than that of traditional meat, but the taste is the first factor , therefore, these vegetable proteins they must perfectly imitate their animal counterparts in texture, flavor and other organoleptic qualities, in their behavior in different cooking processes, etc. Therefore, the sum of both factors is key to boost the growth of the sector much more.
According to studies, alternative food products such as hamburgers, dairy and egg substitutes that are made from soy protein, peas and other plant-based raw materials will reach price parity next year . Later, in the year 2025, food made from alternative proteins obtained from yeasts, fungi, algae, etc. will reach price parity. Finally, it is expected that by 2032 farmed meats will reach price parity, although in this case it is meat of animal origin, but produced from cells in a laboratory. To be more specific, the GFI considers that in 2030 some cell-based meats could already be competitive in production costs with some animal meats.
The experts from the Good Food Institute comment that price parity, in addition to taste and cost, is also influenced by the effects of the market that cause the increase in production costs of traditional meat, something that favors reaching parity more quickly . Since brands like Impossible Foods have entered the market, they have reduced the price of their products twice, and there will be more reductions, but it would be interesting to have the data showing that this reduction favored the increase in sales, as well as data on repeat purchase and consumer loyalty.
You can learn more about the GFI study, as well as other news of interest related to plant-based meat and cell-based meat, through this link.
