Meatless burgers have been out there for quite a few years now, but only recently did the popularity begin to rise, thanks to brands that exclusively cater to this market. Burgers are one of the most popular foods in America and although the meat-based burgers still hold the major share of this category of food, there has recently been a considerable shift in the food choices of the consumers. This has led to the question of whether the sudden rise in the demands of plant-based patties can be successfully met by the leading providers. Let us try to understand how this high demand came about and then look into what the manufacturers are doing about it.
A story about the Impossible Burger
Impossible Foods™, a leading producer of meatless burgers, entered the world of plant-based patties through small restaurants back in 2016. However, they gained popularity only in early 2019, when they partnered with Burger King™. Soon, other partnerships such as White Castle™ and Red Robin™ saw a whopping increase in the sale of these patties. As a result, by the summer of 2019, most of the restaurants, especially the smaller ones, began reporting a shortage of supply from this producer. Demand had then surpassed the supply.
Over 9000 restaurants made the plant-based patties popular in the whole country in a short time, but soon, there were not enough of them, and consumers were advised to call the restaurants beforehand to ensure there was stock. Further, very recently, Impossible Foods refused to partner with McDonald’s™ claiming that they might not be able to fulfill the huge demands generated by the large footfalls at this chain.
The Beyond Meat Alternative
Beyond Meat™, which is the largest competitor of Impossible Foods™, was able to stand strong as an alternative to those restaurants that had depleted stocks of the Impossible burger, but even they could not meet the surging demands for long. This was because Beyond Meat had a different strategy, to begin with. Their reach was primarily through supermarkets as opposed to restaurants. Hence, they quickly fell into a shortage.
Another growing concern for Beyond Meat™ was the sourcing itself. As they use yellow peas as their protein source in burgers, the demand was not fully met by the present state of agriculture. However, this scenario is changing with farmers having planted 28% more dry peas in 2019 compared to the previous year. Beyond Meat™ expanded its popularity by partnering up with Carlo’s Junior™ restaurants and offering their famous plant-based patty in their famous star cheeseburgers.
Improving Supplies
After the period when the sales of plant-based foods saw a growth of 31% between April 2017 and April 2019, the supply of meatless burgers started dwindling in the crazy summer of 2019. Then the leading producers had to sit up and take notice. Impossible Foods™, for instance, took several steps to reduce the shortage. They scaled up production by operating round-the-clock and increasing employee headcount. They also secured a $300 million investment to rapidly boost production.
Beyond Meat also raised $240 million in IPO and began scaling up its production. By the beginning of Fall 2019, Impossible Foods claimed that the shortage has been met, although there were still some restaurants, especially the smaller ones, which reported a dearth in the supply of the patties.
Demand drives innovation
As with every growing market, competition has surfaced in the meatless burger industry that could provide more answers to the supply-demand question in the years to come. One such company is Rebellyous Foods.™ They have set up a new facility to churn out huge volumes of plant-based products, to be marketed by food service companies to catch up with the rising demands.
Existing brands are not far behind either. For example, grocery chain Trader’s Joe has recently launched its vegan burger patties. This could be a huge boon for consumers who continue to see stores running out of the Beyond Meat packages. Another brand, Sysco™, has recently launched a plant-based burger patty under their health banner “Sysco Simply”. They plan to market these through foodservice organizations, thus offering to correct some of the imbalance in the supply and demand caused in the market.
The Future
So, how does the future shape up for meatless burgers concerning the supply and the demand? Well, Impossible Foods and Beyond Burger are doing everything to meet the exponential growth in the demands and for now, supply shortages are being dealt with efficiently. There is also a promising vision in the longer term, especially with the entry of competitors in the field that could, in a few years, raise the supply to new heights. The meatless industry itself is expected to grow to 10% of the worldwide meat market in 10 years, which could give rise to more healthy competition among the players. It is expected that these brands will delve into building advanced facilities, removing agricultural limitations via advanced farming techniques, and so on. Overall, this should mean that in the future, you have a higher chance of walking into a restaurant and readily finding affordable meatless burgers without having to call-in beforehand.