Beyond Meat Comes Next Door To China, Inks Deal To Manufacture Plant-Based Meat By Early 2021

9 September 2020

We're excited to inform that the fast-growing faux meat company Beyond Meat is coming closer home - it's opening a production facility next door in China. Beyond Meat, Inc. will be the first MNC that specialises solely on plant-based meat production, to bring its own major production facility into China. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles-based company informed that it inked a historic deal with Jiaxing Economic & Technological Development Zone (JXEDZ) to open facilities near Shanghai. The company will be manufacturing its plant-based meat products with mock beef, pork and chicken in China. Work is ongoing on the project, and trial production is expected to commence within months with full scale production in early 2021.

China is expected to be one of the most important markets in the world for Beyond Meat, as a production and R&D center, and as a major market in the years to come. Consultancy Euromonitor predicted China’s plant-based meat market would grow from approximately $10 billion in 2018 to nearly $12 billion by 2023. Beyond Meat is clearly trying to make its presence felt and dominate the plant-based faux meat market in China. Ethan Brown, CEO and Founder of Beyond Meat told VeganFirst, "China is one of the world's largest markets for animal-based meat products, and potentially for plant-based meat. We are delighted and confident that after several months of productive and collaborative discussions, we will partner with the JXEDZ to develop two production facilities, including one of the world's largest and technologically advanced plant-based meat factories."

Beyond Meat's products infiltrated the Chinese market earlier this year. In April, its products launched in Starbucks chain of coffeeshops and it partnered with Yum China to launch its plant-based products at restaurants like KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell in June. In the following month of July, its products made its way onto grocery store shelves at Alibaba’s supermarket chain Freshippo (“Hema” in Chinese).

Beyond Meat’s biggest rival, Impossible Foods, is also exploring opportunities in the Chinese market but Impossible Foods requires regulatory approval there as one of its core ingredients is genetically engineered. 

We hope that the the faux meat startup eyes the Indian market and opens shop here in India to treat the taste-buds of vegans and vegetarians.

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