28 September 2023

4 minute read

By: Spencer Long

North America

A new report by Ernst & Young (EY) suggests plant-based fake meat protein will grow significantly over the coming decades. EY’s forecast estimates global plant-based fake meat protein will reach $139 billion USD in sales by 2035. This number is dramatically higher than the $16.5 billion USD in sales for 2021. If true, it is a massive wakeup call for our industry. Even if it's slightly accurate it would be a massive change from today. People may choose to go to a more plant-based fake meat diet for a multitude of reasons, they also might be turned off by the dreadful tasting pork that is too often flooding the market from the world's biggest genetic company. Canadian meat consumption has largely remained the same for decades, pork consumption on the other hand has dropped. As an industry it has become more and more apparent that what we’re doing isn’t working, consumers are choosing to buy other types of meat over pork. On the other side of it we have seen how Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) has gone from being the poster child of the plant-based fake meat crusade having Bill Gates heavily invest and reaching $235 USD a share in 2019 to now trading at $9.37 a share and Beyond Meat now being sold at Dollar Tree. That is a remarkable market correction and Bill Gates sold all of his stock. The reality for Beyond Meat is that it doesn’t taste good. From what I’ve heard from people who have tried it, they say it just doesn’t taste good. Sound familiar? At the end of the day the number one factor in consumers purchasing and repurchasing a product comes back to one factor – taste. It’s not complicated, it's not ground breaking information, we’ve known this. As EY’s report suggest plant-based fake meat protein will grow astronomically over the coming decades and we see how one plant-based fake meat company has failed in their quest, we as a pork industry must be mindful of that and why. If we want to continue down a losing path in which consumers choose to buy fake meat or other types of meat over flavorless pork then we're well on our way and unfortunately doing an excellent job at it. If not, it’s time we make a change that will ensure we don’t continue down a disastrous path that results in more misery.

The issues with Canada’s meat producers and the UK’s ascension to the free trade deal Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is ongoing. The issue echo troubles from Canada’s European Trade Agreement, that promised access for Canadian pork but resulted in next to no gain due to regulatory issues on carcass washes which has been going on for six years when the deal was signed in 2017. The UK doesn’t want to accept Canadian meat due to the anti-microbial product, peroxyacetic acid, that Canada uses on meat carcasses to prevent E. coli. The irony is the UK uses peroxyacetic acid to attack bacteria in other foods but not meat. The Canadian government has already stated they are going ahead with the free trade deal anyways, another resounding success for the Canadian pork industry as will take pork from the UK but the UK won’t accept pork from Canada. Always good to have the Canadian government working as hard as they can to get the best possible opportunities for our pork industry globally.

Our always brilliant Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week decided to accuse the Indian government for allegedly ordering the killing of a person of Indian descent in British Columbia in June. No proof of this allegation has been made public. Since Trudeau is so smart and always thinks about what’s best for Canada, this allegation has completely stopped any sort of negotiations that had stalled prior on a new trade deal between Canada and India which further impacts Canada’s ability to export agricultural goods there. Half of India’s lentil imports come from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan alone and at times India has put up trade barriers – no surprise to see them do the same thing again. There is also growing demand for pork in India which will strain the opportunity for Canada’s pork producers to gain further business. This allegation comes from the same Prime Minister who in 2018 on an infamous trip to India decided to dress up like he was in a Bollywood movie the whole time which many people found offensive and outright ridiculous. The Canadian agricultural sector can be rest assured with Trudeau as leader, we never have to worry about him doing what’s best for it, it will always be how he can further hinder it and make it more difficult for everyone involved. He also decided due to his abundance of incompetence to have a former SS Galizien Nazi WWII veteran receive recognition and not one but two standing ovations in Canadian parliament last week which was the icing on the cake of a week of stupidity, disgust and outright embarrassment.