Spain: The Green Revolution in Spain
In the last four years, 2.1 million Spaniards have changed their habits towards veggie diets. Thus, Spain currently has 5.1 million consumers who recognize themselves as flexitarians, vegetarians or vegans. What started as a trend has become a movement not even affected by the pandemic.
These are some of the main conclusions of the study The Green Revolution that the consultancy firm Lantern has carried out in 2021. Its first report, written in 2017, found that 7.8% of the Spanish adult population acknowledged that their diet was based on vegetables. Two years later, in 2019, this figure increased to 9.9% and in 2021 the number of veggies will rise to 34%, representing 13% of the adult population in Spain (Fig. 1).
Within these more than five million veggie consumers (more than the total population of a country like Ireland), flexitarians are the most numerous, accounting for 10.8% of the Spanish population, followed by vegetarians, who account for 1.4%, and in third place are vegans, 0.8% of the national population. The strong increase in the number of vegans is significant, which has grown by 60% compared to 2019, a growth experienced at the expense of the number of vegetarians, which is slightly decreasing.
Cultured meat
One of the important elements for the development of in vitro meat is whether consumers are willing to buy and consume such products. This year, Lantern wanted to anticipate the arrival of these products and ask Spanish consumers about their willingness to buy them.
The result is by no means negligible. Some 17% of consumers would be open to buying lab-grown meat. It should be noted that the question was about buying, not tasting. Moreover, it was observed that the younger generations are even more open to these solutions. 25.5% of those under 35 would buy cultured meat. Among veggies, this percentage reaches 27%.
It is also worth noting that 54% of all consumers questioned are currently reluctant to buy cultured meat.
Read here the full report in Spanish 615332f293d0ff6c91cf800b_2021The Green Revolution_final.pdf (webflow.com)