Vegetarian Butcher
Attacking factory farming on a large scale
Jaap Korteweg, founder of De Vegetarische Slager, wants to attack the bio-industry on a large scale with his new factory. Target? Becoming the biggest butcher in the world, but there are privateers on the shore. Businessinsider.nl reports that
A few years ago, Korteweg hoped to get a loan of one million euros. In 2015 he finally managed to get a bond loan of no less than 2,5 million euros for his new factory in Breda. With that factory he wants to become the largest butcher in the world.
Competitors on the horizon
As mentioned before, there are privateers on the coast. For example, the Californian startup Impossible Foods announced last month that it would build a mega-factory in the United States for the production of their 'bloody plant burger'. A burger that resembles a beef burger in everything, including "blood", except that this burger is not made from a beef.
4
million
In any case, the numbers don't lie. Impossible Foods claims that in the course of 2017 more than 4 million citizens per month will roll off the line.
Major consumer McDonald's has already shown interest in the producer. David Lee, COO and CFO of Impossible Foods, told Business Insider that these kinds of partnerships are obvious as consumers increasingly seek plant-based solutions.
Interview with Jaap Korteweg
Impossible Foods sounds like some serious competition for the Vegetarian Butcher?
'I do know Impossible Foods and I am very curious what it will be like. I don't really see it as competition. We also often have people from America visiting here. Together with them, we try to hammer home these kinds of developments, a good 'biomeat'. What they have developed is a kind of plant blood. It has the taste and color of blood and they can put that in products. We have already been in touch about a possible collaboration. They don't really have a product on the market yet, but that could possibly work for us too.'
The plan was to open your factory in Breda in April this year, right?
'We are currently fully engaged in construction and want to run a test run from September. We want to start production around the turn of the year. I have to say, we never really planned for the opening. We have bought a property, arranged the financing, you can never say exactly how things will go. We want to take the time necessary for proper preparation.'
Don't feel pressure when an Impossible Foods comes with a mega factory?
'No, I see it as an encouragement. It is not our ambition to do it all ourselves. Our mission is to make factory farming obsolete. We want to play a role so that other producers are also inspired to make beautiful products that meat lovers are satisfied with. In order to be able to completely replace the meat market, there must be room for several good players.'
Impossible Foods aims for 4 million citizens, which production numbers should we consider at the factory in Breda?
'Yes, they say 4 million citizens per month, which are very realistic numbers. For our factory, the production capacity is not much of a problem to meet the market demand. If demand takes a growth spurt, we will need about six months to expand the capacity. In terms of raw material, there is no problem. The smaller the herd, the more room there is to grow raw materials.'
How big is the citizen branch of sport for you?
'It's worth it. About 15 to 20 percent of our production consists of burgers.'
How does that relate to the entire market for citizens?
'I don't know for citizens, but the meat substitute market in the Netherlands is about 2 to 3 percent of the total meat market. That market has increased by more than 15 percent in the past year.'
And that's enough to become the biggest? That's your ambition isn't it?
'If we can maintain our current growth rate, we will be the largest butcher in the world in 18 years. That would be a huge achievement and we're just going for it. We're not into business plans at all, we never have been. We started with a small shop, without a growth model, and from that moment on we have been saying that we want to become the largest butcher. Also a bit to get rid of those kinds of questions about growth.'
Are we as consumers already waiting for this?
'We can increase production capacity very quickly. It depends on the acceptance in the market. You have to achieve it step by step, year by year. Our ambition is to make factory farming redundant by becoming the largest butcher in the world. We don't want to be a niche player with a very good margin. We want to make the product as large as possible, so that this 'meat' is as affordable as possible and widely accessible.'
The US is also fully engaged in it, will the veggie burger grow into a real mass product?
'Yes I think so. In a reasonable period of time, we increasingly opt for a replacement for meat products. In 15 to 20 years, about 20 percent of meat products will be a meat substitute and that is an important tipping point. At that moment we can compete with meat in terms of price and thanks to the innovative power you will no longer taste any difference between plant-based meat and real meat. As a result, in 30 to 40 years, vegetarian meat will replace 80 percent of the meat variety.'
Where are you now?
'We recently took a new step. A steak machine has been developed together with the universities of Wageningen and Delft. With this special machine we can produce larger pieces of vegetarian meat. Until now you could only make nugget-sized biomeat, now steaks of unlimited size and thickness. We were the only market party to start doing this six years ago. The project has been completed and we are now entering the next phase. We are working with Unilever and Givaudan on new products. At the moment there is a queue of multinationals that want to participate. These kinds of large companies only step in if they really think that we will eat much less meat in the future.'
Also read:
McDonald's beware! A startup that makes plant-based burgers is booming
The Vegetarian Butcher can get to work: loan of 2,5 million for its own factory has been received
Kimberly Baker
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