Following a similar price cut last year, Impossible Foods has slashed foodservice prices by double digits, and said it won’t be the last of 2021.
Plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods has slashed its prices for foodservice distributors by 15%, following a similar cut last year, despite “skyrocketing” demand.
In a mission to make plant-based meat more accessible and affordable, as well as a sustainable and ethical alternative to conventional meat, Impossible Foods says it won’t be its last price cut of 2021.
The reduced prices mean the alt-meat is now cheaper than premium, organic and grass-fed beef, while it’s still twice the price of 90/10 beef and thrice that of 80/20 ground beef, which capture the majority of the market.
The brand is also lowering its foodservice prices in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau in double digits. According to Rachel Konrad, its chief communications officer, the company has always striven to achieve price parity with conventional meat, in order to make the transition to a vegan diet a no-brainer, as she told FoodNavigator.
“This is something we’ve baked into our strategy and financials for years. Our entire goal is to undercut the price of conventional, commodity ground beef from cows, she said. “It’s the first cut of 2021 but it won’t be the last. We know that people love the taste of our product and repeat rates are good when people try it, but price is still a barrier to trial.”
Over the past year, Impossible Foods has increased its foodservice distribution from 20,000 to 30,000 locations. Its retail growth has been even sharper, going from 150 stores to 17,000. Its direct-to-consumer business has also seen a steady rise, having recently launched on Amazon Fresh and Imperfect Foods.
Impossible Foods’s price cut follows last year’s demo of a plant-based milk and egg alternative. The brand hopes to double the size of its R&D team over the next 12 months to produce an alt-milk “better than anything that comes from a cow”. The egg it’s working on is teased as a crackable egg, and the brand also plans to enter the plant-based meat market with vegan alternatives to steak, chicken and seafood.
