Food Review October 2021

Page 18

INDUSTRY TALK – PLANT-BASED ALTERNATIVES

Lucrative opportunities for plant-based food manufacturers Business owners and entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for new opportunities and, according to market sizing and consumer data from Europe, one potentially lucrative opportunity is vegan cheese explains Donovan Will, director of Proveg South Africa.

A

ccording to a market sizing report that

vegan cheese was at the top of the

looked at Nielsen market data from 11

list of products that plant-based

European countries for a period of two

consumers are looking for.

years ending September 2020, the plant-based

According to Verena Wiederkehr,

food economy in Europe grew by 49% with

former head of Food Industry and

plant-based-cheese purchases growing by a

Retail at ProVeg International, who

staggering 112%.

oversaw the research, “The data

Despite this growth, vegan cheese is still

supports the view that good quality,

one of the most sought after plant-based

affordable, plant-based cheeses have a

products in Europe. ProVeg International,

good chance of penetrating, capturing and

a food awareness organisation based in

retaining a large part of this fast-growing and

Berlin, recently conducted a large scale

lucrative sector.”

consumer survey across nine European

South Africans might think that we’re

countries in order to identify priorities for

immune to these global trends because

product improvement and development

we’re a nation of meat-lovers, but research

in the plant-based food market, and

shows that even in other meat-loving countries like Germany, the move away from meat

Donovan Will, Director of Proveg South Africa

large ranges, there are well over 100 meat replacement options in South Africa. On the plant-based milk replacement side,

is significant. Currently

there is a similar story. In 2020, the ProVeg

only 26% of Germans eat a

South Africa team tasted and catalogued

meat product every single

80 different plant-based milk alternatives

day, compared to 34%

that were available in South Africa, and more

in 2015. We are already

have been introduced since then.

seeing increased demand

While there are vegan cheese options

for plant-based alternative

available, like Violife’s range and Woolworths’s

products in South Africa

house brand range of vegan cheeses, the

- highlighted by Burger

options are few, especially when compared to

King South Africa’s recent

other plant-based alternatives like meat and

addition of a plant-based

milk replacements.

Whopper, Vegan Royale and

The opportunity for South African

vegan nuggets. There has

manufacturers is two-fold. Firstly, gaps have

been an explosion of plant-

been identified in the European market and

based meat alternatives

there’s good reason to think these export

on retailer’s shelves in

opportunities exist elsewhere.

recent years. Ten years ago

Additionally, there is an opportunity to be

the only quality option in

one of the first major players in some of these

this category would have

categories locally.

been the range from The

Along with plant-based cheese, other

Fry Family Food Co. and

opportunities in the plant-based segment

while Fry’s continues to

that were highlighted by the report

dominate this space locally,

include plant-based egg and plant-based

they have been joined

convenience meals. •

by at least 17 other meat replacement brands that are now available in retail stores in South Africa. As many of these brands have

18

October 2021 | FOOD RE VIEW

The full ProVeg Consumer Survey Report can be downloaded here: https://proveg.com/what-we-do/ corporate-engagement/proveg-consumer-surveyreport-download/


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