Plant-based meat plays a vital role in the alternative protein landscape, driving a shift in the habits of traditional meat eaters. As the industry expands its product availability and variety, it is crucial for supply chains to keep pace, ensuring accessibility, affordability, and avoiding shortages.
Our plant-based meat manufacturing capacity study delves into the current landscape and explores pathways for capacity expansion. We examine the benefits of retrofitting existing facilities and evaluate the size of the retrofit opportunity. Additionally, we compare the trade-offs, capital expenditure (CapEx), lead times, and other factors between greenfield construction and retrofitting.
These points are further compared through two hypothetical build-out scenarios, where plant-based meat demand grows incrementally from 2022 to 2030. The first scenario involves retrofitting half of the facilities while constructing the other half through greenfield development. The second scenario focuses solely on greenfield construction.
Concluding our study, we offer recommendations for both public and private sectors that aim to proactively and conscientiously expand global production capacity for plant-based meat products. These recommendations emphasize the importance of timely investments, ongoing product innovation, and the expansion of production capacity in terms of geographic spread and scale. By implementing these measures, we can effectively prevent supply chain shortages, foster long-term category growth, improve affordability, and cater to the evolving preferences of consumers.