Please Pass the Faux Fish. NewsWire

NewsWire: 8/7/21

• With sales of plant-based meat soaring, companies are now tackling the next frontier: plant-based fish. Once dismissed as too niche, it’s become the next hot protein. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
• NH: Plant-based fish, which used to be considered a niche product only for vegans, is going mainstream. Thanks to the success of Beyond Meat (BYND), Impossible Burger, and other plant-based meat companies, the industry is starting to think bigger. Big names like Tyson Foods (TSN) and Thai Union Group have been rolling out fake shrimp, vegan crab cakes, and more.
• Compared to the overall plant-based meat market, which in 2020 was worth $1.4 billion, the seafood market remains small. That year, U.S. sales of plant-based seafood totaled $12 million, up 23% from 2019. But if faux seafood maintains its current growth rate, it’s expected to catch up to fake meat’s share of the conventional market within the next decade. Investment in this sector grew to $70 million in the first half of 2021, as much as in the past two years combined.
• The most obvious target markets are vegetarians and flexitarians. But companies also bet they can draw consumers who might not normally be interested in other plant-based products, such as pregnant women or people with shellfish allergies. They’re also, more broadly, targeting young people under 40, who are leading the shift away from eating meat.

Did You Know?

• Do You Want Ads with That? One shared characteristic of the subscriptions boom (see “Welcome to the Subscription Economy”) has been a one-size-fits-all price. Whether it’s Netflix, Spotify, or Disney+, most digital services typically charge a single fee to access all of their content. Prices only differ according to the number of devices per household. But in recent weeks, this has begun shifting. Spotify is testing an ad-supported subscription tier that costs only $0.99 cents/month. The plan, which is called Spotify Plus, is significantly cheaper than the standard tier ($10/month) and removes some of the restrictions of the free tier. Similarly, YouTube is testing YouTube Premium Lite, which scales down their existing premium plan and is nearly half the price. Disney, meanwhile, is taking the opposite tack and offering newly released movies for an additional $30 charge. All these options are intended to scoop out more of the area beneath the consumer demand curve in an increasingly crowded market--but ironically they might remind consumers of the complicated multi-tier cable packages they’re trying to avoid.