Nestle Asia'S First Plant Based Production Line Put Into Operation

After half a year's preparation, Nestle today announced that its first plant-based production line in Asia was officially completed and put into operation in Tianjin. Next, Nestle will give priority to providing plant-based product solutions for the catering industry.

"Nestle's investment in the Chinese market is long-term." On December 9, Nestle's chairman and chief executive officer of Nestle Greater China revealed that China is Nestle's second largest market in the world. After investing 100 million Swiss francs (about 734 million yuan) in Tianjin in May this year to build its first plant-based product production line in Asia, Nestle hopes to promote China to become the forefront of plant-based development.

In the first three quarters of this year, Nestle group achieved sales revenue of 61.912 billion Swiss francs (about 454.744 billion yuan), achieving an organic growth of 3.5%. Vegetarians and vegetarians and Nestle Health Sciences achieved double-digit growth, of which plant-based products grew by 20% in the third quarter. Nestle pointed out in the financial report that the growth of vegetarians and vegetarians was supported by the launch of new products and continued expansion of distribution.

The 21st century economic report reporter noted that since this year, many food giants have also stepped up the distribution of plant-based products, of which the growth rate of Danone's plant-based products reached 20% in the third quarter. With the expansion of consumer demand, the breakthrough of product research and development and the decline of production cost, the artificial meat market has a broad prospect.

There is a big increase in demand

It is reported that nestle Jiazhi cuisine will launch six prefabricated new products for retail channels, focusing on three consumption scenarios: family dinner, late night overtime and three generations of families.

"We are very cautious in entering this market. In the past few months, we have tried to cooperate with TMIC platform to understand the needs and pain points of consumers based on data empowerment, and finally chose the new products to be launched." According to Jiang Nini, chief marketing officer of Nestle Greater China and head of candy and plant based food business, China's plant-based market has shown an explosive trend since 2020.

"According to the data, 84% of Chinese consumers prefer flexible diet, and they show a dual demand for healthy nutrition, meat taste and flavor." According to Jiang Nini, Nestle's advantage in developing plant-based products in China is its Tianjin factory and R & D center, which can quickly adjust its market layout according to consumer feedback.

In fact, affected by African swine fever, Sino US trade war and even the new epidemic, more and more Chinese consumers gradually changed their eating habits and began to accept and choose artificial meat products.

According to Euromonitor International, the scale of China's Vegetarian market, including artificial meat products, increased by 33.5% (about US $10 billion) from 2014 to 2018, and the overall market size is expected to reach US $11.9 billion by 2023.

"Search data shows that most consumers plan to increase their intake of plant-based foods." According to Rothschild, the outbreak of the epidemic has aroused greater concern of consumers for personal health, and plant-based food will develop rapidly in China.

Wang Yihong, general manager of tmall's key account department of Alibaba group, quoted data as saying that the demand for plant-based products has increased by more than 60% in the past year, but there are not many products available for consumers to choose from in the market, which is difficult to support a large number of consumer demand.

According to Jiang Nini, Nestle will launch the flagship store of jiazhiyao tmall in late December, and its plant-based products will be successively stationed in Shanghai and hemamen stores in Beijing. Next, more activities will be held to collect consumer feedback, create a "c2m model" and make more precise product adjustments.

Chinese foreign scuffle

According to the markets and markets report, the global market size of plant-based artificial meat will be about 12.1 billion US dollars in 2019, which is expected to grow at a compound growth rate of 15.0% each year and reach 27.9 billion US dollars by 2025.

In May last year, beyond meat, the first artificial meat company, was listed on Nasdaq, and its share price soared 163% on the first day. Another artificial meat company, impossible foods, also received about $500 million in round f financing in March this year. In addition, large meat companies, including JBS, Brazil's largest meat producer, Tyson Foods, Hormel, Smithfield foods, and Cargill, an agricultural and animal husbandry giant, have entered the artificial meat market.

In September, Jebsen capital participated in the investment of livekindly, a global multi brand plant-based food company. At present, it is only sold in Australia, Europe and Europe, including the brands of meapy, liveph and so on. It is revealed that the raised funds will be used to expand their own production capacity and accelerate the pace of the company to enter the Chinese market.

In addition to international giants, domestic food companies also smell the business opportunities of artificial meat. Since last year, meat and twin tower food, golden ham and DuPont have launched artificial meat products. Since this year, global fast food chain giants including yum, Starbucks and Burger King have launched plant-based products in the Chinese market.

It is understood that as early as 2017, Nestle entered the vegetable based pure vegetable food field through the acquisition of sweet earth, a vegan food manufacturer. In 2019, Nestle launched its human-made meat products in the European market and the US market.

But in the Chinese market, Nestle has shown a wait-and-see attitude.

"The market of plant-based food in western countries is relatively mature, with a scale of about 6.5 billion Swiss francs in Europe in 2019. In the Chinese market, the category volume of quick-frozen food is expected to reach 335 billion yuan in the next five years, and consumers' demand for the nutrition and quality of quick-frozen food is increasingly strong. " Jiang Nini believes that many domestic and foreign competitive brands have rapidly entered the plant-based food market, presenting a fragmented market layout.

At the same time, the concept of plant-based food is still a new category for Chinese market and consumers, and consumers have different opinions on it. "It really tastes like real meat." "isn't it bean products that China has always had?" "Is it healthy for people to add so many things?" Discussions about artificial meat are everywhere on the Internet.

Zhu danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, believes that although artificial meat is popular both at the capital end and the enterprise side, it still has a long way to go before it can be recognized by Chinese consumers on the consumer side. "First of all, there is no national standard for artificial meat. Consumers have doubts about the safety and nutritional value of artificial meat." In addition, Zhu danpeng also pointed out that there are still many gaps between the taste and taste of artificial meat and that of real meat. Many consumers would not like to try again after a fresh try.

He believes that for the artificial meat companies, how to increase innovation and research and make the nutrition and taste of products more popular and recognized is an important topic in the future of the artificial meat industry.