Australia is seeing an economic boom in meat alternatives and soy products as more people move to plant-based diets.
These meat alternative plant-based foods are also known as vegan meats or meat analogues. They’re protein-rich and ultimately are better for us than animal meat and fat, which has been linked to chronic inflammatory diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer.
Consumers are also becoming more conscientious and aware of the inherent suffering involved in the farming of animals. Upward of 65-70 billion farmed animals are grown each year across the globe for human consumption and experience a short life of oppression, where every inch of their lives are controlled, dominated and predetermined by humans. Their natural instincts are denied, freedom restricted, they are pumped full of preventative antibiotics, which also causes them to grow at much faster weights placing huge burdens on their bones and limbs. As more and more people recognise that these animals are sentient with the ability to suffer, consumer decisions begin to change.
Dean Epps, the general manager of Life Health Foods—Australia’s largest manufacturer of meat analogues—said the demand for protein alternatives that looked and tasted like animal meat was “coming from people who have aggressively reduced their meat [intake]”. Mr Epps tracks the trends of Australians’ meat consumption through independent surveys and comparisons of national studies.
Tofu Kofta.
Sanitarium was the largest and longest-running Australian manufacturer of meat alternatives and some soy products. During 2014, Life Health Foods acquired Sanitarium’s meat analogue brand in response to the growing demand and competition in the protein alternative market and it opened a new plant in May. A 6,000-square-metre site exists now on the central coast of NSW.
The retail space for meat alternatives and soy products had doubled over the last decade, with the majority of competition coming from overseas. Fry’s Family Foods, a meat analogue manufacturer in South Africa, has been trading in Australia for 18 years and moved to Brisbane this year to continue expanding. Fry’s Family Foods are purchasing more core vegetable like potatoes, corn, carrot, peas, lentils and chick peas, and everything they buy is vegan, kosher endorsed and non-GM. Meanwhile, Life Health Foods sources most of its ingredients from local producers, but most flours, textured vegetable protein and soy protein come from outside of Australia.
Benefits to Growers
Mr Epps said the meat analogue, soy products and wholefoods market would continue to benefit growers across the board, as manufacturers use more wholefoods. Australia has the potential to turn raw materials into these products by increasing its investment in food technology and the market change also opens up to start up companies who are looking to tap into this very fast growing market.
Tofu is the most traditional and simple protein analogue which has been around for more the 2,000 years and derives from China—but Australians are demanding it now more than ever. Soybean buyer and marketer from Coleambally, Tom Graham, said Australian tofu manufacturers had increased their production by as much as 10% annually over the past 15 years. This year, soybean production has increased by 20,000 tonnes nationally.
It’s an economic benefit right across the agricultural and commercial business.
— Mr Tom Graham, soybean buyer and marketer
There’s also been a steady increase in tofu due to the growing Asian migration. Currently, most of Australia’s soybean is exported to Asia for tofu production, which is about 5,000 to 6,000 tonnes per year.
As the dependence on animal meat begins to decline in parts of the western world, many people become concerned over potential job loss that could occur within animal agriculture, forcing even more drastic cost reduction, which is known to endanger human lives on production lines and always negatively impacts the lives of farmed animals. However, demand for food products does not just cease—it just changes. The reduction of one farming industry is replaced by the growth and demand of another farming industry.
Humans have an enormous capability to adapt and change, and embracing the increasing move to plant-based diets is something all Australian’s should look forward to.
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