Chinese domestic plant-based meat industires began to rise facing with KFC

1. Plant-based meat suddenly became popular in the Chinese domestic market this year. From the earliest people only listening to its name, to being brought into the country by large-scale restaurant companies such as KFC and Starbucks, plant-based meat has opened the door to the Chinese market. Brands such as foreign plant-based meat suppliers Beyond Meat have also followed Yum China and Starbucks China to enter the country smoothly. https://eu.echemi.com/ https://eu.echemi.com/ So, how should domestic plant-based meat brands respond? On June 18th, the reporter was informed that the plant-based meat brand Zhen Meat announced the release of two new plant meat products. However, unlike the existing plant-based meat products on the market, the two new plant-based meat on Zhen Meat are more inclined this time for Chinese food, this layout is also regarded as the beginning of Zhen meat in order to differentiate from a group of plant meat brands, but it is also difficult and challenging to take the Chinese plant-based meat route. Differentiated Chinese plant-based meat Plant-based meat brands have also begun to seize the "6.18" hot sale. Today, Jane Meat announced the release of two new plant-based meat products, namely plant small crispy meat and plant crayfish. These two new products are aimed at the hot pot format and the supper market. Lu Zhongming, the founder of Jane Meat, said that the new plant-based meat products launched this time are more suitable for the Chinese food market and domestic consumers, so these two new products are also called "Chinese plant-based meat". In fact, Jane Meat has been trying to bring plant-based meat closer to Chinese food. In September last year, Jane Meat launched the first Chinese-style vegetable meat product through the E-commerce channel-plant-based meat Moon Cake, precisely because of Zhen Meat at the time Combining plant-based meat with traditional Chinese food moon cakes, the introduction of vegetable flesh moon cakes immediately aroused heated discussions among domestic consumers and media attention. In addition, according to the reporter, Jane Meat has also tried to cooperate with well-known Chinese food brands in Beijing to jointly develop vegetable meat products since last year. Jane Meat has been trying to make plant-based meat more local. Lv Zhongming revealed that the plant-based's small crispy meat and crayfish, which were launched by Jane Meat, are already trying to cooperate with domestic catering companies. Some companies are already advancing, but because it has not yet been finalized, it is temporarily inconvenient to disclose the brand name. In addition, Jane Meat also disclosed its own supply chain. According to reports, this time Jinzhen introduced Shenzhen Qishan Food Company as a supply chain partner. The company has been engaged in plant-based meat research and development, production, service and other businesses since 1993. At present, the market in China has certain scale advantages and

2. equipment advantages. The cooperation between the two parties has also reduced the cost of logistics and transportation of new meat and plant-based meat products, making this The two new products launched this time are basically the same as the prices of real crispy meat and crayfish. The inevitable Chinese food mainstream Since April this year, the growth rate of vegetable meat in the country has increased rapidly with the launch of plant-based meat products by KFC and Starbucks. This ingredient, which was only active in the foreign catering market last year, is now on the table of domestic consumers, and KFC and Starbucks also expressed certainty that they will continue to launch plant-based meat series products, which will not only be promoted in stores nationwide, but will also follow The series is updated regularly at the speed of product updates. The layout of KFC and Starbucks has indeed accelerated the cultivation of vegetable meat in the domestic market, but at the same time, both KFC and Starbucks have chosen to cooperate with foreign plant-based meat suppliers, and they have also brought foreign plant-based meat star companies into the Chinese market. Challenge domestic domestic plant-based meat brands such as Jane. In this regard, Lu Zhongming said that the real vegetable and meat suppliers behind KFC and Starbucks are indeed well-known star companies, and they can indeed use the large volume of both of them to quickly deploy with the help of KFC and Starbucks to enter the Chinese market. However, their products still remain in the western food and western fast food formats, and the texture (texture structure) of vegetable meat products is still mainly ground meat, meat sauce,

3. and patties, which are indeed the common meat forms in western food. "However, the mainstream domestic food and beverage consumption format is still Chinese food," said Lu Zhongming. Chinese food involves a variety of meat forms, such as shredded meat, sliced meat, and meat pieces. In addition, the parts of animal meat used in Chinese food are also Very diverse, such as ribs, tenderloin, leg meat, offal, etc. In addition, Chinese food cooking methods are more diverse than Western food, and the meat dishes presented are more diverse. "If we compare with Beyond Meat as a burger, we may not be able to compare, but we can focus on the Chinese food market, for example, this time the new small crispy meat, imitating the taste and texture of pork tenderloin, crayfish is imitating the small Lobster tails, and these two products are currently hot items in the Chinese food market. Small crispy meat can be mainly for hot pot companies. In addition to the supper market, crayfish tails can also be used for pre-packaged snacks and crayfish rice bowls. Wait for different scenes," Lu Zhongming said. In an interview with the Beijing Business Daily, Xue Yan, secretary general of the China Plant Food Association, said that the rise of plant meat from the European and American markets to the domestic market is not sudden. The layout of Starbucks and other brands is also due to a long brewing period. There is potential. However, Chinese and Western food cultures, needs, and preferences vary greatly. Foreignplant-based meat brands tend to emphasize that their plant-based meat products "look like" real meat, but Chinese food consumers have higher requirements for the taste and texture of meat. Therefore, it can be said that plant-based meat brands want to seize the Chinese market, and it is the only way to force localized plant meat products, and the move of Zhen Meat is to seize the first-mover advantage in this field. Competing for technical barriers KFC and Starbucks brought foreign plant-based meat brands. At the same time, domestic plant-based meat brands are rapidly emerging with the heat of vegetable meat. In addition to Jane Meat, brands such as Week Zero and Hey Maet are also rapidly entering the field of vision. In addition, big brands such as Shuanghui, which already have considerable scale and brand influence, are also entering the market. On the consumer side, although plant meat is still in the market cultivation period, competition in the field of plant meat has quietly started, and is showing a trend of increasing competition. Lu Zhongming admitted that the domestic plant-based meat market is still in a relatively primary stage and still belongs to a niche market. It takes a long time to cultivate and develop plant meat to become a mass consumer product. In his view, foreign plant-based meat brands using KFC and Starbucks to enter the Chinese market not only intensified the competition in the domestic plant-based meat market, but also reflected the potential of the domestic plant-based meat market, so the future competition in theplant-based meat market will be around It focuses on technology, R&D capabilities, and supply chain development. Although Jane Meat is constantly trying to launch Chinese-style plant-based meat products, it is also officially because Chinese food has higher requirements for meat products, which has increased the difficulty of research

4. and development of Chinese-style plant-based meat products. If you want long-term sustainable development in the domestic market, it is necessary for enterprises to study different plant-based meat products suitable for Chinese consumers for a long time and uninterruptedly. This is also a challenge faced by domestic plant meat brands in the future. Xue Yan also said that the development of plant-based meat is very meaningful for domestic catering, food processing, agriculture and other fields. The domestic agriculture and food processing industries are currently facing the problem of slowing growth. The production of high value-added products has always been the direction of industrial upgrading and development. The development of plant-based meat can help promote industrial upgrading in the medium and long term and make up for the gap in meat products. Therefore, we are optimistic about the development prospects of the domestic plant-based meat market. But at the same time, it is more difficult to develop localized plant meat products. Who can take the lead in seizing this technical barrier will greatly help its future development. At the same time, Xue Yan also revealed that the formulation of domestic industry standards and certification systems for plant-based meat is also in progress, and will be announced in July this year, which will also promote the healthy development of the plant-based meat industry .