The coronavirus pandemic is reshaping the US meat market, with sales of plant-based substitutes surging while closures of slaughterhouses and processing plants threaten production of the real thing.
US sales of plant-based meat substitutes jumped 200 per cent in the week ending April 18, compared with the same period last year, and surged by 265 per cent over an eight-week period, according to consumer data group Nielsen. This compares with jumps of 30 per cent and 39 per cent respectively over the same periods for fresh meat.
Though plant-based meat still accounts for a small portion of the US protein market, it has been rapidly growing in popularity in recent years — a trend that has been accelerated by the crisis, said Bruce Friedrich at the Good Food Institute.