“We’ll stay close to consumer demand,” he said on April 30 in a conference call. “Our teams there are paying close attention and discussing this amongst each other.”
Kellogg’s Morningstar Farms unit, which already makes veggie burgers, will roll out more chicken imitation products, and recently hinted at other innovations, too.
“It’s a space where we feel like we have the right to win,” Chief Executive Officer Steven Cahillane said on an earnings call. “We’ll continue to innovate in that space.”
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
Consumer trends, including health and wellness, animal protection and environmental concerns, continue to gain traction, aiding sales growth prospects for plant-based meat substitutes. Millennials are driving this trend, and growing disposable incomes allow them to spend in support of their beliefs.
In the U.S., there’s a shortage of Impossible burgers, which uses a genetically modified concoction from soy plants and yeast to imitate cattle blood -- all to more perfectly mimic the taste of flesh. They’re sold at thousands of locations including at White Castle and Burger King.
While veggie burgers have long existed, the ones that are garnering much of the investment are highly engineered alternatives that aim to taste as good as meat. But there’s also a flourishing of the lower-end stuff as retailers offer their own private label plant burgers.
Grocer Aldi is getting into plant-based proteins with vegan burgers under the Earth Grown brand that are much cheaper than Beyond’s burgers, which cost $6 to $7 for two, 4-ounce patties. The Aldi Earth Grown vegan burgers were introduced last year, and are just $2.79 for a 10-ounce package of four patties, the company says.
Read more about the plant-based craze: Big Dairy and Plant-Based Working Together as Cow Milk Flounders The Other Fake Meat: Beyond Burger Clashes With Former Partner Big Vegan Brands Snag Loyal Customers When They’re Undergrads
To be sure, alternative meat is still tiny compared with animal-protein markets -- less than one percent of animal-protein sales, according to Sawyer. But some people see the makings of a bubble.