Following discussions with fellow industry professionals, the Riga, Latvia-headquartered processing and canning company SIA Karavela said it anticipates that there will be significant growth in the plant-based seafood sector and predicts the global market will reach USD 1.3 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) by 2031.
To glean insights into the potential of plant-based seafoods, Karavela recently hosted three days of online discussions, including analysis from vegan product manufacturers. These talks highlighted the growth in veganism and the soaring popularity of alternative meat products.
Karavela, which is developing its own line of plant-based seafood alternatives, said there has been an increase of vegan options in the fish category, and the expectation from producers is that there will soon be a lot more of these products appearing on supermarket shelves such as new vegan tuna and fish-fillet offerings. Also, recognizing that many vegan product buyers are flexitarian, the talks’ participants felt that moving forward, plant-based products should be placed alongside the standard products in the relevant categories rather than being sold from separate vegan food shelves, the company said. They further suggested that current supply chain challenges – particularly those logistics and sales route destabilizations created by the ongoing Ukraine crisis – could see vegan foods become even more important to consumers, and increasingly stimulate the trade and demand for these products.
“The regular supplies, logistics, and sales routes are [being] disrupted and producers need to adapt and find new ways to deliver product ingredients. Also, all costs (gas, fuel, electricity, etcetera) are rising every day, [which] means that regular product shelf prices will increase rapidly. But if we talk about vegan food, this category’s products [had] a higher price before [the] global price rises compared to regular products, so for us producers of vegan products it means that we will not increase prices for vegan products,” a spokesperson for Karavela told SeafoodSource.
Karavela exports its products to 46 countries around the world, including its main markets of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. The largest markets for plant-based food are currently the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia.
Photo courtesy of Karavela
