Can plant-based meat alternatives benefit from inflation, avian flu?

• Inflation and avian flu could make the timing right for meat alternatives to grow market share.
• Fresh beef and chicken prices were both up 9% in April, while meat alternatives were down 1.6%.
• Meat alternatives have a 1.5% share of the meat sales market, about 20% of consumers have tried them.
• By contrast, plant-based milk has reached 42% of households and has a 16% share of the market.

Consumers flipped over the notion of hamburgers made from plants instead of animals when they showed up in supermarkets and fast-food chains about five years ago.

But with prices for meat replacements high and America’s taste for real beef intact, shoppers steered away even as the plant-based meat-alternative industry slogged away with new products, better distribution and the opening of new international markets.