“This is a big opportunity, but people have been overlooking it,” she said, adding: “We have food security issues, and this is a more consistent way to fill a protein gap and aid food security.”
She says, as with any technology, costs start high but drop as systems become more efficient.
“In three to five years there should be price parity [between animal meat and cultivated meat],” she said.
It is still a while before the product “hits the market”, she said, adding the company is not trying to erode the cultural and traditional aspects of meat in SA but is instead introducing an alternative.
Thompson is also a co-founder of The Credence Institute, a non-profit advancing the interests of animals by researching and promoting market-based solutions in Africa.
Its survey in SA revealed a strong demand for plant-based and cultivated meat options. For plant-based alternatives, 67% of consumers proved “highly interested”, 59% highly likely to purchase and 31% prepared to pay more. For cultivated meat, percentages were 60, 53 and 30 respectively.
“Younger generations were the most enthusiastic: born-frees and millennials were more likely to try to buy both plant-based and cultivated meat than Gen X,” said the institute.
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Food diaries
What’s on the braai grid? South Africans embrace plant-based alternatives
Legal battle under way as meat industry attempts to keep its hold on the market
Image: 123rf
If that smell of a braai is wafting down your street, don’t assume it’s meat on the grid. Plant-based alternatives that simulate meaty products are on the rise in South Africa.
Retailers are reporting higher sales, producers are pointing to an explosion over the past five years, and research has detailed how South Africans aren’t as dedicated to a hunk of real meat as one might think.
Not just that: a legal battle between meat and plant-based companies hangs in the balance over the use of descriptors such as “sausage”, “meatball” and “biltong”.
In August last year, plant-based products — designed to replace meat and using such descriptors — were about to be pulled from shelves after the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development objected to the “illegal” use of meaty names, but a last-minute reprieve, in the form of an interim court interdict valid until early May, was granted.
There is little wonder the meat industry may feel nervous.
Pick n Pay’s Nicki Russell said the retailer has doubled the number of plant-based products it stocks over the past two years, while “sales continue to grow year-on-year, with newness driving this growth among local customers”.
Looks like vegan bacon has become the flavour of the day
Research by Bloomberg Intelligence found that the global plant-based market will grow from $30bn (R548.83bn) in 2021 to $160bn (R2.93-trillion) by 2030, highlighting how this trend has gone mainstream.
Locally, movements such as “veganuary” continue to drive awareness about plant-based diets, with South Africans joining a global movement that saw 620,000 people from 220 countries and territories following a vegan diet for January.
Fry’s is one of the oldest plant-based product companies in SA, having launched in 1991, and according to spokesperson Genevieve Cutts, has seen “massive growth” since then — but it accelerated over the past four to five years, as “there was a significant global growth in plant-based awareness and demand” that fuelled growth locally.
She said a higher demand from consumers has grown the demand from retailers and restaurants.
She said it’s “for the good of all” that competitors have popped up in the market and this has generally “grown the category and thus the awareness and demand”.
She added: “South Africans are buying plant-based foods for various reasons. It’s a complex category to play in, and so understanding consumer needs is vital.”
The growth has seen “more retail space, more brands and more restaurants offering plant-based options”.
But, she added, “the quality of the product is critical”.
The consumer’s experience should be positive from the minute they start exploring.
What about strain on the pocket? It depends which product you choose. If you’re throwing a braai and shop at Woolies, you’ll be paying about R15 per patty for a free-range beef burger.
If you opt for the spinach, sweetcorn and butter bean version instead, you’re looking at only R10.75 a patty, and if you go for the Beyond Meat plant-based option that more closely simulates the meaty experience, it will set you back about R60 a patty, with all patties in these examples being similar but not identical sizes.
If you choose other plant-based burgers from Checkers or Pick n Pay, it will cost about R15 to R17 a patty.
The next frontier on the South African scene is lab-produced meat for which no animals are slaughtered.
‘Veggielicious’ chef Mokgadi Itsweng on the power of plants
Start-up Mzansi Meat Co is working on cultivating meat from cells instead of taking it from animals. Tasneem Karodia, co-founder and COO, said what drives her is a focus on sustainability.
“It is important to look at how we make food systems more efficient,” she said, adding that co-founder Brett Thompson, the CEO, had spent 15 years exploring alternatives to protein and in the field of animal advocacy.
“He has spent all those years telling people to stop eating meat, and wanted to give them another option. He is driven by a belief in animal welfare.”
Karodia says overseas companies looking into alternatives missed the gap in the South African market and instead turned their gaze from Europe and the US to Asia.
“This is a big opportunity, but people have been overlooking it,” she said, adding: “We have food security issues, and this is a more consistent way to fill a protein gap and aid food security.”
She says, as with any technology, costs start high but drop as systems become more efficient.
“In three to five years there should be price parity [between animal meat and cultivated meat],” she said.
It is still a while before the product “hits the market”, she said, adding the company is not trying to erode the cultural and traditional aspects of meat in SA but is instead introducing an alternative.
Thompson is also a co-founder of The Credence Institute, a non-profit advancing the interests of animals by researching and promoting market-based solutions in Africa.
Its survey in SA revealed a strong demand for plant-based and cultivated meat options. For plant-based alternatives, 67% of consumers proved “highly interested”, 59% highly likely to purchase and 31% prepared to pay more. For cultivated meat, percentages were 60, 53 and 30 respectively.
“Younger generations were the most enthusiastic: born-frees and millennials were more likely to try to buy both plant-based and cultivated meat than Gen X,” said the institute.
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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