Convenience products Speaking at last summer’s Chicken Marketing Summit in South Carolina, US, Chris Dubois, senior vice-president and principal at IRI, highlighted the categories that had driven most of the meat growth in the previous year (US$ 100m+). Chicken and turkey took five of the eight categories with stir fry/Fajita cuts (+14%) and ground chicken (+12%) leading the way. Convenient products dominated the market, mean- ing that while sales of fresh chicken breast had risen by US$ 1.3 billion since 2013, fresh whole chicken sales have fall- en by US$ 200 million in the same period. Dubois highlighted how the ‘no antibiotics’ strategy continues to play well with US consumers, among whom 35% said that ‘free of antibiot- ics’ was important to them when they went fresh food shop- ping. Organics are also doing well in the US with a fifth of consumers saying it’s a key issue for them. But even in the US, the percentage of households buying chicken and turkey is declining – down by nearly half a percentage point to 92% for chicken and by a third of a point to 60% for turkey. Among those who do not currently consume plant-based protein, chicken buyers are most open to consuming this type of protein (20%). Over five in ten said their ideal meals would consist of more plant-based foods. In reality, however, fewer than 10% of buyers of each meat protein had
purchased plant-based foods in the past six months. While the growth of plant-based protein is small, its development could create headwinds for animal protein producers and meat producers. Dubois noted the need to introduce blended options to satisfy this craving. Others think that the plant- based meat that is already here – the Beyond Burger and the Impossible Burger – will become more widely available. Bruce Friedrich of the Good Food Institute, which works to develop alternatives to meat, predicts a widening of the consumer products on offer. Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, he said: “We’ll have plant-based meat that doesn’t exist yet, whether it’s pork chops, steaks, tuna or salmon.”
Future
Whether plant-based or lab-based meat (also referred to as cultivated meat) takes off remains to be seen. US start-up JUST has created chicken nuggets in a bioreactor and scien- tists at the University of Bath are growing bacon on blades of grass. Statistics don’t at present support any massive change in the protein rich poultry sector by 2050. But Friedrich, at one end of the spectrum, believes otherwise: “There won’t be factory farms or abattoirs in 2050. There will be some herit- age breed farms and slaughterhouses where animals are treated well. But it will be a limited market.”
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 4, 2020 39
Consumers say they want more plant-based foods: in reality, however, fewer than 10% of buyers of each meat protein had purchased plant-based foods in the past six months
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