In Italy

Green consumption, for plant-based foods +16% in two years

The segment is worth EUR 641 million in 2023 and is growing beyond the inflation effect. Beverages on the sales podium. Cheese +79.6%.

22 September 2024

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"Our greatest triumphs and challenges are reflected in the meals we share. Food is never just food, it's who we are". So begins Omnivore, one of the most eagerly awaited docuseries of the year (viewable from 19 July on Apple Tv+), created by celebrity chef René Redzepi. Few things better than food can tell who we are. It is a red thread that, travelled backwards, reconstructs the past; followed forwards, it gives a glimpse of what we are becoming. It is a terrain of continuous confrontation - individual and collective - that often features plant-based food. If the segment is, frequently, dominated by subjectivity, then let the numbers speak for themselves.

Monday's Il Sole 24 Ore was able to view and preview the report 'Insights into the Italian plant-based food retail market from 2021 to 2023, with preliminary indications of market trends in 2024' prepared by the non-profit Good Food Institute Europe, based on Circana data. The Italian retail market for seven categories of plant-based foods (meat, beverages, cheese, yoghurt, cream, ice cream and desserts) is worth EUR 641 million and has grown by 16.1% in two years, and by 8% over 2022.

Despite the price increase - which affected all food goods across the board - unit sales grew by 5.8% between 2021 and 2023 and by 2.8% between 2022 and 2023. In the period January-April 2024, the total sales value of the seven categories grew by 6.5%, sales by 8.3% and volumes by 5.1% compared to the same period in 2023 (see infographic for details).

Product categories

The podium in sales value is led by vegetable beverages and reaches EUR 315 million (+ 10.9% on 2021). Silver medal for vegetable meat: the value of sales increased by 24.2% over 2021 to EUR 199 million. Unit sales saw an increase of 15.1%, although the average price of a kg of vegetable meat rose by 12% between 2021 and 2023, before falling slightly at the beginning of 2024. Big boom for cheese: a small category that saw sales value increase by 79.6% and volumes by 77.3% between 2021 and 2023 (see article on the right).

IL MERCATO AL DETTAGLIO DEGLI ALIMENTI A BASE VEGETALE IN ITALIA

The consumer identikit

The Coop 2024 report notes that 22% of Italians have eliminated or reduced their meat consumption and 82% of those under 35 are adopting or may adopt a predominantly plant-based diet in the future. According to the recent study 'Evolving appetites: an in-depth look at European attitudes towards plant-based eating', financed by the European Union, 23% of Italian respondents declare themselves 'flexitarians', i.e. they follow a predominantly plant-based diet, to which they add animal-derived products occasionally. 59% say they have reduced their meat consumption, 62% would like measures to be taken to facilitate the transition to a more plant-based diet and to support farmers in the production of raw materials for the sector, 35% still see the final price as a barrier.

Sinu, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, a few months ago presented the new Larns (reference intake levels of nutrients and energy) for the Italian population, recommending a higher intake of vegetable protein. "The basis of any diet should be plant-based, even for those who are omnivorous," explains Silvia Goggi, a doctor specialising in Food Science, author, scientific director and co-founder of Planter, an app that plans a personalised plant-based diet with 50 thousand users, the English version of which has just been launched. "One of the most deeply rooted clichés,' Goggi continues, 'is the belief that, due to the absence or limited presence of foods of animal origin, plant diets lack some nutrients. In reality, animals do not create nutrients, but concentrate them from plant sources. On the contrary, vegetables are foods where nutrients such as protein, calcium and iron are free of cholesterol and saturated fat and accompanied by fibre and protective substances. However, a well-planned diet is needed'. Themes addressed by Goggi in the podcast 'One meal at a time', which in the first week of its launch exceeded 15,000 listeners, placing it in second place in the Italian podcast ranking.

The price factor

'Improving taste and texture requires advances in research, but much is being done,' explains Francesca Gallelli, public affairs consultant at Good Food Institute Europe. 'The price difference is partly due to the innovative aspect of some foods - whose development in Italy does not enjoy incentives - but it also depends on other factors. Let's think of VAT: on animal milk it is 4 to 10 per cent, on vegetable milk 22 per cent. Italy is among the few EU countries that have not levelled it out'. Gallelli notes interesting price levelling initiatives in large-scale distribution in Austria, Belgium and Germany. 'In Austria, Billa has equalised the prices of some animal and vegetable products: consumption has risen by 33 per cent,' Gallelli notes.

The policies of European countries

Gallelli cites the initiative of Denmark, a major pork exporter, 'which launched a major action plan for the development of plant proteins at the end of 2023, to which an investment of EUR 168 million is linked. The Catalan government has allocated seven million euros to finance a product research and development centre, now in the industrial design phase. In France, the start-up Umiami opened a EUR 38 million vegetable meat plant in March, financed with more than EUR seven million by the French government.

To unlock Italy's potential, 'we need to compare ourselves with what is happening abroad, in countries with an agri-food tradition similar to ours, such as Spain and France; to think of support measures for entrepreneurs and companies and, above all, to depoliticise the issue,' Gallelli concludes.