When non-vegetarians start to like plant-based meats

Alternatives to meat are not new in Thailand, what is new is that meat eaters are getting a taste for them.

Traditionally, plant-based meats - mainly wheat and soya - are for vegetarian Buddhists who seek to avoid eating animals for religious reasons.

See : Vegetarianism in Thailand

In 2020, however, innovative new products made from a more diverse range of ingredients began to attract a lucrative and unlikely audience... meat eaters.

For the agricultural nations of Southeast Asia, this change could mean an injection of funds on an unprecedented scale.

The fact that plant-based meats are beginning to appear on some Asian menus of several internationally renowned restaurant chains shows how the paradigm has changed.

While many foodservice providers are struggling, new plant-based offerings continue to be launched, recording net sales and growth rates that exceed their animal-based counterparts.

This growth is partly due to the increasing consumer fear of animal diseases and the demand for natural products.

Indeed, despite the pandemic putting the global food system under extraordinary strain and uncertainty, Asia-Pacific companies focusing on alternative proteins such as plant-based meat have raised more than €187 million (6.87 billion baht) in funding over the past year to accelerate their growth.

As highlighted in a new report entitled "Asian Cropportunities", producers of certain commodities stand to benefit from this shift in society away from animal meat.

One such commodity with huge growth potential in Thailand is jackfruit.

See : The many health benefits of jackfruit

The fibrous texture of jackfruit, already a common ingredient in curries, has been compared to that of pork and soaks up any added seasoning, making it a popular alternative for consumers looking for 'less processed' products.

Jackfruit is rich in fibre and is one of the few fruits rich in B-complex vitamins.

Despite its nutritional benefits and usefulness, most jackfruit, which is often grown as roadside flora rather than in orchards, is wasted in any given year, meaning that a huge amount of bioavailability develops naturally.

In a recent interview, Danai Pathomvanich, managing director of NR Instant Produce PCL, a Thai food export company, said that his company had doubled its jackfruit sales because "consumer interest in health is a huge trend right now and the potential for growth is huge".

See also: Company makes fortune by turning jackfruit into pork

Danai said that herbal products currently account for about 7 % of his company's turnover, but that he expects this to increase to 30 % within four years.

But beyond the ingredients already available in Thailand, there are other "opportunities" just waiting for local producers and investors.

Konjac - an underused root vegetable that has become an essential ingredient for mimicking certain textures in plant-based seafood - lends itself well to expanding cultivation, as it can be successfully planted alongside rubber, which is already a big business locally.

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In addition to its textural benefits, konjac is perhaps best known as an ingredient in dietary supplements designed to help people lose weight.

In many Asian markets, one of the main factors driving consumers to adopt a more plant-based diet is weight loss.

A plant-based meat product containing konjac therefore has the potential to be very attractive.

There are many benefits to moving away from conventional animal meat that go beyond our own health.

Meats made from innovative plant ingredients such as jackfruit and konjac also have a much smaller climate footprint than their animal-based counterparts.

In fact, animal husbandry and slaughter for food are among the top two or three causes of the most serious environmental problems at all scales, from global to local.

To produce chicken meat, for example, an animal must be fed nine calories of chicken feed to recover only one calorie as edible meat.

In a world of increasing climate risk and diminishing natural resources, this is an inefficiency that Thailand would be well advised to reduce or eliminate.

Thailand's national leaders have already put in place numerous programmes to support what has been described as 'smart agriculture' by integrating new technologies to increase production and modernise farming practices.

This government support provides a perfect incentive for local producers and business owners to take advantage of the rush to alternative proteins and plant-based meat - if they are far-sighted enough to seize it.