Alternative food a hot commodity

NEW YORK, May 22, (AFP) - This week's rousing stock market debut of dairy alternative Oatly underlines anew people's enduring appetite for vegan products. If anything, that hunger has grown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following a heady Nasdaq debut on Thursday and another surge in Friday's session, the Swedish food company is now valued at about $13 billion, a lofty level for one that took in $421 million in revenues last year from sales of oatbased milk, ice cream and other products not made with space-age technology.

Oatly is far from alone in the emerging space. Earlier this month, Nestle launched a new nondairy milk made with peas, adding to a slate of plant-based options for burgers, sausages and tuna.

At its vast chain of coffee shops, Starbucks now offers four creamers made from something other than cow's milk: soy, almonds, coconut and, since March, oats.

And in Singapore, since December consumers have the option to purchase lab-grown chicken composed from animal muscle cells.

The alternative food industry was already on the rise before the pandemic, with startups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods winning praise for vegan items that surprised many consumers with their likeness to meat in terms of taste, odor and texture.

In April 2019, Burger King made waves after launching the first vegan version of its popular “Whopper” sandwich. Since then, most big fastfood chains have followed suit, while producers have joined Nestle in introducing meatless supermarket products.

During Covid-19, meat alternatives enjoyed a temporary surge in interest as some consumers sought healthier products. Sales of Beyond Meat products spiked initially before moderating.

The surge also came as production problems, due partly to Covid-19 outbreaks, temporarily curtailed conventional meat availability, though supplies later stabilized.

“The pandemic opened people's eyes to the risks of the meat industry, the relative fragility of its value chain,” said Jan Dutkiewicz, a fellow at Concordia University and Harvard Law School who writes often on food and environmental studies.

Investor interest in alternative meat is keen in part because of the environmental costs of conventional meat production, as well as concerns about animal welfare.

Investments in alternative food tripled in 2020 to $3.1 billion, according to the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit.