Yet consumer appetite for more sustainable choices has increased amid growing alarm about global warming. In the 2020 financial year,alternative meat items on Australian supermarket shelves doubled and grocery sales of plant-based meatincreased by 46 per cent.
“I’ve launched lots of products in my career in the food industry,and the only ones that ever last are the ones that are delicious,” said Nick Hazell,the boss of CSIRO-backed v2food. “Consumers never compromise flavour.”
“We have to be exactly where people buy meat. That,I think,is the big unlock,” Hazell says. “Mainstream meat buyers … they’ll walk straight past us.”
The other dominant barrier the plant-based industry must overcome is cost;vegan andplant-based options have traditionally come with a premium. Hazell believes price remains a key consideration for shoppers. “You’ve got other[considerations] about sustainability and nutrition – but actually,food is really about,‘is it delicious,and can I afford it?’”
Impossible Foods has priced itself at the upper end of the spectrum. Its recently launched ‘beef’ burger patties,at $9.50 for a packet of two,cost more than twice as much as Woolworths’ 4-pack of classic beef patties at $8.50. But Halla points out that the company has been able to bring down prices in the US as production has scaled up.
“It’s a matter of time.” The business dropped prices down by 15 per cent two years ago,and then again last year by 20 per cent,he said.
“The prices will be a bit higher than what you’re seeing in the mass meat market,which is just a hugely scaled industry already. But over time,plant-based[products] will be more affordable than animals.”
But amid widespread inflation where theprice of real meat,especially beef,has skyrocketed,alternative meats no longer seem as pricey.
“We’re at the point now where we are actually cheaper than beef in the supermarket today,” Hazell says. A 500 gram packet of v2food mince costs $8.50;500 grams of Coles’ 4-star lean mince costs $9.50,he pointed out.
“That is a tipping point. That has not ever happened.”
The alternative meat industry is expected to balloon to a $189 billion global industry by 2029,according to Barclays,and Australia presents a lucrative opportunity,if done right. Underpinning these companies is a shared goal:a more sustainable planet,and to make this sustainability commercially viable.
V2food products are only available in Asia,for now:Hazell says he’s impatient to conquer the domestic market,then take the brand worldwide. “We’re running out of time here,” he said. “We have to head off this massive sustainability problem. We don’t have two planets.“
Though consumers are becoming more environmentally conscientious,the struggle is in getting them to make different choices. “I think everyone kind of gets it,but when you go into the supermarket,you don’t think about that when you do your groceries.”
One thing consumers will always expect is the choice itself,which may have been where Grill’d miscalculated.
“You can’t tell people what to do. Give them the choice,explain what you stand for,” Hazell says of the burger chain’s reversal. “I think the worst thing is to tell people:‘No,you now no longer have a choice to eat meat’.”
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