Century Pacific Food, Inc. (CNPF) recently announced that their plant-based brand “unMEAT” will be available in one of the largest retailing companies in the United States (US) – Walmart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Particularly, the ‘unMEAT Meat-Free Luncheon Meat-Style\u2019 will be launched in over 2,000 Walmart stores across the US. Aside from Walmart, the product is distributed in other US stores such as HEB, Harris Teeter, Meijer, and selected natural and grocery stores. It is also distributed online through specialty e-commerce websites such as GTFO, It\u2019s Vegan, Weee! and Vegan Black Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the new distribution channel, CNPF\u2019s Greg Banzon is confident that they are heading in the right direction with regards to their plant-based business and continues to see this segment playing an important role in the food requirements of an increasing global population. Currently, \u2018unMEAT\u2019 is distributed locally in major supermarkets nationwide as well as internationally in the US, UAE, China, Australia and Singapore<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While it\u2019s good that CNPF is expanding further internationally, the meat-alternatives craze continues to fade. CNPF has been aggressively expanding its \u2018unMEAT\u2019 portfolio ever since 2020 as it includes new plant-based food formats such as \u2018unCHEESE\u2019 and \u2018unMEAT Fish-free Tuna\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the plant-based\/alternative meat market is no longer as exciting as it once was. Prospects locally remain poor, as Filipinos consumed only 59,300 metric tons (MT) of alternative meat products in 2020, falling way behind the region\u2019s leader, China, with 4.08 million MT (source: Euromonitor). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, in the US, supermarket sales of refrigerated plant-based meat products slipped by around 14% in 2022 while orders of plant-based burgers at food chain restaurants and outlets dropped by 9% in November compared to three years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Companies such as Beyond Meat also saw a drop in sales during the last quarter which resulted in them laying off over 20% of their workforce and halting future projects like vegan hotdogs. In general, plant- based meat alternatives relatively cost more than real meat, hence any improvement in demand for these products may be dampened by inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n