Analysis plant-based dairy
Will plant-based 'dairy' win the battle with cow's milk in the US?
Plant-based milk seems to be gaining ground among American consumers. To respond to this, coffee chain Starbucks introduced plant-based coffee milk in its range yesterday (July 13). The products will also be on the shelves of supermarkets.
Starbucks is not unfamiliar with drinks based on plant extracts, instead of animal products. At the beginning of this year, the coffee chain also introduced several milk-free alternatives on its menu. The new plant-based coffee milk products are introduced in 2 different flavours, hazelnut and caramel. According to the company, the demand for plant-based milk substitutes continues to pick up and to respond to this, it has partnered with Nestlé.
Vegetable milk market
With Starbucks, more and more companies are choosing to introduce plant-based alternatives to cow's milk on their product shelves. They often cite the ever-increasing demand for plant-based milk as the reason. Even dairy chain Arla chose to produce plant-based milk products and launched a new brand name especially for this: JÖRÄ.
According to a study by the American The Good Food Institute, the plant-based milk market accounted for 2019% of the total plant-based food market in 40. The market is worth $2 billion US dollars, an increase of 5% compared to 2018. Nevertheless, the plant-based variant of cow's milk is still inferior to real dairy. 14% of the milk purchased in American stores consists of the vegetable variant. This is equivalent to 620 million products.
Within the plant-based dairy products, almond milk accounts for the largest share with a value of $1,3 billion, followed by soy milk with $202 million. The fastest growing variety is oat milk. Demand increased by almost 2000% over the past 2 years. Today, oat milk has a share of $84 million.
Fight
Although cow's milk still occupies a larger market share than vegetable milk, the battle is not over yet. Various studies have expressed the expectation that the market share will increase by another 2024% from now until 14. This trend is mainly formed by the purchasing behavior of the American consumer, which strongly stimulates the vegetable market. Research shows that 41% of American households prefer plant-based milk over real dairy.
This trend also became visible at the start of the corona crisis, when the sale of oat milk in American supermarkets rose by no less than 323% compared to the same period in 2019. It is very striking that even the run on disinfecting hand gel did not exceed this increase. That demand increased by 313%.
Jorine Cosse
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