A few days ago, the Good Food Institute (GFI), a nonprofit in support of alternatives for animal agriculture products, released a report that summarized the health of investments in plant-based food and beverage alternatives. In short, plant-based alternative companies are on the rise– and fast.
The report’s findings are supportive of the trend that’s been evident since the beginning of this year, with new victories for plant-based companies being announced seemingly every day. For example, Impossible Foods and Burger King will be introducing the Impossible Burger, a plant-based burger patty, to all locations by the end of this year. Also, Beyond Meat’s IPO debut was massively successful, more than any other IPO in decades.
GFI’s report shows that investment in plant-based alternatives really spiked in the past 2.5 years. In fact, of the total $16 billion invested in plant-based food and beverage companies in the last 10 years, about $13 billion of that chunk took place in 2017 and 2018 alone. Furthermore, acquisitions of plant-based companies saw the most growth in 2017 and 2018, with 10 of the 19 acquisitions since 2009 taking place in those two years. For example, Unilever purchased the Vegetarian Butcher, and Maple Leaf Foods acquired Lightlife. Other companies, such as Tyson Foods, have even decided to develop their own line of plant-based foods.
As consumer demands for plant-based alternatives to meat, eggs, and dairy increase and the options become even tastier and more plentiful, the plant-based food and beverage industry will only continue to grow in the years to come.
