Plant based, sales reach 669 million in Italia. But growth trend slows down
Good Food Institute: volumes grew by 5.8% but the sector needs to reach a wider audience
he plant-based food market in Italy is expected to reach EUR 669 million in 2025, with annual growth of 4.5% in value and 5.8% in volume. This is according to the report on the Italy's plant-based food retail market 2023-2025 by the Good Food Institute (Gfi), which is based on Circana data and will be released next week. The fact that volumes are growing more than values is, according to Gfi Europe, a sign that demand is real, not inflated by inflation. In almost all categories, the average price per kilogram actually decreased between 2023 and 2025, despite inflation.
With EUR 342 million sales in 2025 (51% of the total), plant-based beverages remain the leading segment. Sales volume grew by 6.2 % to 170 million litres in 2024, and the share of the total market (vegetable drinks and animal milk) increased to 8.5 % in volume and 11.8 % in value. There is a shift towards oat and almond products, both of which are more expensive than soya and rice, which lose share. Oats increased from 27.5% to 33.7% by volume between 2023 and 2025, with a growth of 18% in 2025 alone. For Gfi Europe, this is a sign that in this mature category, taste weighs more than price, which remains 45% higher than cow's milk (with milk VAT at 4% versus 22% for beverages).
Meat substitute products (EUR 234 million) were the second largest category by value (+4.1%, down sharply from +16.3% in 2024). Unit sales reached 95.9 million, an annual increase of 5%. The market is dominated by burgers, with almost 60% of the sales volume. The average price per kilogram dropped to EUR 13.17 (-3% in two years). The Gfi Europe report points to the parallel growth of tofu, tempeh and seitan as comparison data, reaching 40.1 million in value (+22% over 2024) and 4.12 million kg in volume (+73% over 2023) in 2025.
Tofu, which alone accounts for three quarters of this segment, cost on average EUR 8.35 per kg, much less than vegetable meat. However, in 2025, the sales volume of vegetable alternatives to meat remained 4.3 times higher than that of tofu, tempeh and seitan together.
With 25.9 million euro in sales,vegetable fermented alternatives to cheese are the smallest category, but also the one with the highest growth rates (especially among spamables): +17.1% in value and +15.6% in volume in 2025 compared to 2024. However, the market share in total cheese remains marginal: 0.29% in volume.
