China Business Daily (reporter Zhou Zijing text/ photo) On June 25, the global plant-based brand LIVEKINDLY Collective announced that it has entered the Chinese market with the Chinese name "Li's Lohas". In fact, in the past two years, many domestic and foreign giants, including Nestle, Danone, Yili, Mengniu, etc., have competed to increase the plant-based market, and even some insiders have called this year China's "plant-based take-off year". What are the reasons behind the increased competition of many giants, and what are the future development prospects of China's plant-based market?
Plant-based products
Giants at home and abroad are competing to increase the size of the plant-based market
On June 25th, liveKINDLY Collective, a global plant-based brand, announced that it has landed in the Chinese market under the Chinese name of "Li's Lohas", and launched two new brands of "Hapi Chicken" and "Giggles" for the characteristics of the consumer population in the Chinese market. Huang Mengni, chief growth officer of LesLie's Lohas, told China Business Daily that Leslie's LOHAS will focus on catering and e-commerce channels after entering China. "Our target consumer group is the young consumer of Generation Z, where they consume, we will layout."
It is understood that since its inception in March 2020, Leede Lohas has raised $535 million in 12 months to support the promotion of the company's plant-based products in key areas and strategic acquisitions in the plant-based field, and has completed the acquisition of six brands in three continents such as North America, Europe and Africa, becoming one of the world's three high-funded and fast-growing plant-based food companies.
In fact, in the past two years, plant-based products represented by plant meat have shown strong vitality in the Chinese market, and domestic dairy giants Yili and Mengniu have launched plant protein drinks such as plant selection and plant mills. Last year, a number of plant-based brands were favored by capital. For example, in August last year, Hey Maet announced the completion of nearly 10 million yuan of seed and angel round financing; in the same period, Zhou Zero announced the completion of tens of millions of dollars of Series A financing; and in September last year, New Vegetarian announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan Pre-A round of financing.
Since the beginning of this year, a number of giants have further increased the plant-based market. In March this year, McDonald's China launched a new limited-time breakfast product in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - "Planted Thick Breakfast Meat Series"; at the same time, Danone announced that its plant-based brand alpro officially entered the Chinese market and launched three flavored plant protein drinks of oats, aldan wood and coconut; in May this year, Nestlé launched the plant-based version of Meilu chocolate milk.
Plant-based into the "year of take-off"?
According to GFI (Good Food Research Institute of the United States), the size of China's plant-based market in 2018 was close to 1 billion US dollars. The "2020 Plant Protein Beverage Innovation Trend" released by the Tmall New Product Innovation Center pointed out that last year, China's plant protein beverage market developed rapidly, and the sales growth rate far exceeded that of other beverage categories. Some insiders have called this year the "year of plant-based take-off".
Why is China's plant-based market getting hotter and hotter? Food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng told China Business Daily that the plant-based market is favored because its products have the characteristics of high protein content and low fat content, which matches the core demands of the current consumer side for face value management, weight management and health management.
Ouyang Jun, a researcher at Shenzhen Zhongwei Zhiyan Consulting Co., Ltd., told the China Business Daily reporter that plant-based products are favored by the market for several reasons, one is that animal protein and food have caused resistance from many enthusiastic animal protection people, who will prefer plant-based foods; second, animal protein and food will produce more feeding costs and carbon dioxide, many environmentalists believe that it is more harmful to the environment, and eating plant-based products is more conducive to ecological protection; third, for fitness people, plant-based products are healthier. In addition, it is not excluded that there is a certain market hype and blind follow-up in the current plant-based market.
What are the prospects for future market development
What are the future development prospects of China's plant-based market, and how big market opportunities exist? Information consultancy Euromonitor predicts that by 2023, China's plant-based meat market will reach $13 billion. This means that in the next few years, China's plant-based meat market will account for almost half of the global market, which contains huge business opportunities.
Huang Mengni said that at present, the development of China's plant-based market is still in its early stages, opportunities and challenges coexist, and it is imperative to find a better source of protein to support sustainable development. "The future can start from two directions, one is to touch the potential target population, and the other is to return to the product itself, and do a good job of eating, safe, and good for the body of plant-based products."
Zhu Danpeng believes that China's traditional plant-based brands have the characteristics of low product technology content and no professional formula, and at present, with the entry of giants and the help of capital, China's plant-based market will move towards high-end, functional, social and all-scenario in the future.
Ouyang Jun believes that from the perspective of product function, China's plant-based market has certain development prospects. However, the promotion of plant-based products involves many technical problems, and there is no complete scientific verification or perfect standards. It is expected that It will take a long time for China's plant-based market to truly solve the problems of poor product taste and high prices.