Plant-based meat and dairy alternatives – Polish market landscape
Poland with its meat-oriented culture opens up to plant-forward eating.
Even though, looking through the historical perspective, Polish diet has always been based on grains and root vegetables, Poles' affair with barbecue, pork chop and other meat-based dishes is obvious. However, what would seem abstract a couple years ago becomes a reality in Poland today – the plant-based boom has hit and there are multiple reasons to back the opinion that it should be considered rather a longterm mainstream tendency rather than a phase. Many arguments prove that it would not be an understatement to put Poland on European map of plant-based boom along Germany, Netherlands or the United Kingdom. The rising flexitarian population, the restaurant business open to plant-based cuisine, the manufacturers expanding their product portfolios with innovative plant-based products make only a few arguments for Poland being the hot-spot for food innovation in 2020.
With growing consumer demand for more sustainable and healthy products, food producers are keeping up the pace with new plant-based launches in meat and dairy alternative categories – rather than a trend, new consumer and product segments in the making can be observed. While most of the attention stacks-up at US, British and German markets, Poland has been witnessing its plant-based momentum in 2020 as well.
According to various research, approximately 25 to 40% actively reduce their meat consumption. 73% Poles are up to introduce plant-based meat alternatives and decrease their meat intake when such products would meet their needs – consumers expect that meat-alternatives are healthy, affordable and taste similarly or better than their meat originators. More importantly, 2020 has been so far a year for multiple food industry stakeholders to react to that high interest in meat alternatives in Poland. Meat-processing firms, start-ups, multinational companies, local producers as well as retailers with their private label brands have been shaping the category extensively.
According to research firm Nielsen, sales of plant-based dairy products have increased by 26% in 2019. With brands such as Alpro or Upfield expanding its presence in Poland, one can expect not only the marketing budgets to grow, but also whole plant-based dairy to benefit as more and more consumers are exposed to dairy alternatives. Moreover, Polish companies are taking bold steps towards plant-based production. Jogurty Magda, a company with almost 30 years of experience in dairy processing transitioned to fully plant-based production in 2020 and now offers a variety of plant-based yoghurts.
Growing population of flexitarians, increased interest in plant-based foods coming from retailers and producers along with other factors can possibly create an explosive mix and elevate the popularity of more plant-forward eating to the next levels, also in Poland.
With a population of 38 millions and multiple efforts to normalize plant-based eating, Polish market presents an opportunity for plant-based meat and dairy producers as the categories are only starting to take shape. Considering the possible shift from meat and dairy towards its plant-based alternatives, even the portion of the 17,9 billion EUR Polish meat processing market makes the opportunity attention-worthy.
The whole report on the plant based replacements of meat and dairy market in Poland you can find here.