Beef and Pork Producers Continue Dominance Over Alternatives

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – With more alternative meat products available to consumers, will traditional meat producers lose market share? That’s a question addressed recently by Dr. Jayson Lusk, a food and agricultural economist at Purdue University.

First, according to Lusk is understanding percentage growth. Going from one pound to two pounds is equal to 100 percent growth while going from 101 pounds to 102 pounds is only 1 percent growth. Second, Lusk explains, is not just focusing on sales spikes but also on what happens later.

A recent report from IRI shows changes in sales of plant-based meat alternatives highlights dramatic sales growth during the early part of the coronavirus pandemic. He also points to the fact that the spike in March seems isolated, especially as wholesale meat prices were skyrocketing.

So, at a time when beef prices rose dramatically and retailers were limiting purchases due to limited availability, the growth in sales of plant-based meats began to fall from almost 80% at the end of April to 57% at the end of May.

Lusk concludes that “a lot of the purchases of plant-based alternatives are coming from consumers who wouldn’t have bought much beef or pork, to begin with”, suggesting that producers of traditional meat products don’t have much to worry about in the near-term.