Europe: Plant-based is booming

5% of the products launched worldwide between July 2017 and June 2018 were vegan, and 11% were vegetarian.

+Whereas the number of vegetarian market launches has stayed relatively stable in recent years, products marketed as vegan have more than doubled in the past five years. Vegan product launches worldwide grew by 175% in the past five years (July 2013 – June 2018).

In early 2019, Mintel published the latest figures for new product launches in Europe for the whole of 2018. According to these figures the UK, with 16% of all new vegan and vegetarian product launches, replaced Germany, the previous occupant of the No. 1 spot. The German food industry now produces only 13% of all new introductions in this market. That could be due to the fact that the UK, with actors like Benedict Cumberbatch and Ariana Grande, has prominent advocates for a vegetable diet. According to Mintel, launches of new meat-free products as a proportion of the total volume of new products in Europe in 2018 amounted to 9%, and thus almost twice as many as in 2015, the year in which the five percent mark was only just exceeded.

An example of the commitment of companies in this ethicsdriven segment of the food market is Katjesgreenfood GmbH &Co KG, which in November last year participated in Wild Friends, a company that was the first US brand to stir up the traditional American peanut butter market with varieties such as Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter, Vanilla Espresso Almond Butter or the first Oat and Nut Butter Cups, and it did so with a nut butter manufactured without palm oil. The Wild Friends product range includes various nut and seed butter spreads, both in glass and as squeeze-packs, together with breakfast oat flakes with nut butter in “To Go Cups”. The Wild Friends product range is already available in more than 8,000 branches (e.g. Whole Foods, Costco, Kroger) in the

USA and Canada, and through their online shop. In an interview with the markenartikel journal, Katjesgreenfood’s CEO Dr. Manon Sarah Littek said: “Katjes recognized at an early stage that a transformation is occurring in the entire food market, and the next generation of consumers is setting different dietary priorities. Therefore we at Katjesgreenfood are working on new issues and fields in the food market. That’s why it’s designed as an additional mainstay of the Katjes Group, and in no sense a substitute.” The plant basis is decisive in this respect. Littek: “Therefore all our commitments – on principle we invest only in FMCG products (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) – are based on vegetable raw materials. Secondly, the importance of nutrition has changed – nowadays it’s an identity-building, value-based substitute for religion.” Since 2017, Katjes has invested not only in the vegan products trader Veganz, but also in hemp lemonade, coffee berry drinks, the porridge pioneer Haferkater, the vegan butter start-up Fora and, early this year, in the Rainforest Company, a Berlin start-up which, so it is said, introduced the world’s first “To-Go Açaí Bowl, which is conserved using High-Pressure Processing Technology (HPP) that treats the product gently.” Katjesgreenfood is also on the move in the bakery market area. In March 2018, Katjesgreenfood participated in the Californian start-up Foodstirs, which according to the press report is Number 1 in the fastest-growing organic baking market in den USA. According to the report, Foodstirs baking mixes are already sold in more than 15,000 retail outlets within the USA (Whole Foods Market, Kroger, Target, Starbucks and Amazon, among others). Innovations currently launched include “Minute Mug Cakes” 60-second cupcakes, and “BakeYour-Own Bars”, the first organic bar for home baking.