The vegan meat market could be worth $140 billion by 2029, says a report.
Earlier this year, Barclays — a British multinational investment bank — conducted a report into the vegan meat market. It revealed that while meat consumption is on the up due to a growing global population, this actually offers up a big market opportunity for plant-based meat brands.
In the future, it could offer a big market opportunity for clean meat too. Clean meat — which involves growing meat in a lab from a few animal cells — isn’t widely available yet, but a number of food tech companies are working on bringing products to market in the coming years.
Currently, the vegan meat market is worth $14 billion, by 2029, it could grow to $140 billion, predicts Barclays. It could take up 10 percent of the global meat industry.
The company writes in its report, “due to rising demand and a growing population, global meat consumption is on the rise, especially in the US, which currently makes up about $270 billion of the $1.4 trillion global meat industry.”
It continues, “we believe therefore that there is a bigger market opportunity for plant-based (and maybe even lab-grown) protein than was projected for electric vehicles ten years ago.”
Going Mainstream
JP Morgan Chase — another multinational investment bank — agrees that the market could top $100 billion, however, it predicts it could take 15 years.
According to Barclays, for vegan meat to go mainstream, retailers will have to increase availability, more restaurants will have to give it a space on the menu, and companies will have to ensure these products appeal to meat-eaters.
Thanks to some major fast-food partnerships, vegan meat’s launch into the mainstream is already happening.
Earlier this year, Burger King launched the Impossible Whopper nationwide. After the debut of the new menu item — which includes Impossible Foods’ “bleeding” plant-based Impossible Burger — the chain experienced a significant sales spike. In April, the month the burger was first introduced, sales rose by 28 percent.
KFC, McDonald’s, and Subway have all trialed new vegan meat options this year in various locations. The latter has now launched a vegan meatball marinara sub in the UK, the U.S., and Canada.
