Pay up for plants

A quarter of consumers is currently willing to pay more for plant-based burgers relative to beef burgers according to a UBS consumer survey. This could indicate three quarters of consumers are unlikely to regularly buy plant-based food because prices lie 30% to 300% above animal-based product now. Nonetheless, consumers in aggregate are buying more plant-based food as evidenced by the 10-15% annual sales growth. However, to reach mass-adoption lower prices are likely necessary. Therefore, it is no surprise plant-based food companies such as Beyond Meat, Impossible Food and Oatly aim to reach price parity.

Price comparison of animal and plant-based products

Source: Walmart, Tesco, Rewe, Carrefour, Amazon, USDA, Lidl, March 2021.