With the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, plant protein may become the solution to "meat shortage". During the COVID-19 epidemic, a large number of meat processing plants in the United States stopped working. The stagnation of the supply chain forced farmers to have nowhere to deal with livestock, and consumers immediately faced the situation of "no meat to eat". Tofu, originally regarded as a niche product, has entered the center of American consumers' sight.
Last year, the sales of tofu in the United States was $363 million, and the penetration rate in retail stores was even only 5%. However, according to the report of the American Plant Food Association (PBFA), in the initial period when most factories in the United States stopped production, that is, in the third week of March, the sales of all plant foods increased by 90% compared with last year.
According to Nielsen, a consulting firm, the sales volume of tofu increased by 66.7% in March compared with the same period of 20 19, and still increased by 32.8% in May.
Compared with other meat substitutes, tofu is cheap and good. Beyond Meat, an artificial meat brand, priced a pound of ground beef at $8.99, while the retail price of tofu close to a pound was only $2.99.
Dasha Shor, a global food analyst at Mintel, a market research consultancy, said: "For price-sensitive and health-conscious consumers, this is a viable option to add more protein to their diet."
Extended data
Sales growth of vegetable and meat substitutes;
Due to the shortage of animal protein and rising prices, the leading brands of vegetable and meat substitutes shine brilliantly. In the first quarter of this year, Beyond Meat's net income increased by 14 1% compared with last year, and its share price has more than doubled since the beginning of this year.
Its products have entered 25,000 grocery stores in the United States. Recently, it was announced that it would cooperate with Sinodis, a food distributor, to enter the China market and greatly increase its market share in Asia. Investment bank BTIG analyst Peter Saleh rated Beyond Meat as a buy with a target price of $65,438+073.
In fact, even before the outbreak of COVID-19 virus, people's interest in vegetables and meat was on the rise. According to Nielsen's data, from the end of February of 65438+to the beginning of October of 65438+/kloc-0 before the outbreak of COVID-19, the sales of vegetables and meat increased by 30% compared with the same period of last year, while the sales of meat only increased by about 1% in the same period.
China What is the reason why tofu has become a popular meat substitute in the United States? There has been a shortage of meat in the United States.