Meet the Meatless and Milkless Forum – A Direction Towards an Alternative Sustainable Future!

The 2nd Plant-Based Food Summit was organized by Plant Based Foods Industry Association (PBFIA) in association with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) was a resounding success. The principal sponsor of the summit was U.S. Soybean Export Council. The summit held on 25 May at Hotel Le Meridian in New Delhi witnessed huge participation from the industry stakeholders.

Sanjay Sethi, executive director, Plant Based Foods Industry Association (PBFIA), said, "India's plant-based foods industry is experiencing rapid growth and transformation. Consumers are becoming more health-conscious, and environmental concerns drive the shift toward plant-based diets. Growth has positive implications for the economy, environment, and public health. The industry has the potential to create new jobs and increase revenue streams for small and medium-sized enterprises, one such project being India's First Plant Protein Cluster at Bhiwadi. Additionally, plant-based diets have positively impacted the environment."

The summit served as a knowledge and networking platform all under one roof. Eminent speakers joined the panel discussions and shared their expertise with the audience for a result-oriented approach.

Meet the Meatless and Milkless Forum

At the summit, Gopal Chakarapani, country manager - India, Innova Market Insights, moderated the session on Meet the Meatless and Milkless Forum – A Direction Towards an Alternative Sustainable Future. The panelists of the session were a perfect balance to represent different stakeholders of the plant-based alternatives category value-chain, including Sandeep Devgan, chief executive officer, Stonefield Flavours; Indu Kalra, commercial lead (Texturant Solutions - Specialty Ingredients), ADM; Sohil Wazir, chief commercial officer, Blue Tribe Foods; Siddharth Ramasubramanian, founder and chief executive officer, Hello Tempayy; Pratichee Kapoor, director, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent & Africa, Kerry; Milan Darji, food technologist, Consumer Foods and Value Nutrition, Buhler India; and Chef Davinder Kumar, vice president (F&B Production) and executive chef, Hotel Le Meridien.

Gopal Chakarapani, country manager - India, Innova Market Insights, kickstarted the panel discussion by setting the agenda, centralizing the Challenges and Confusion to clear the roadblocks on the way to a sustainable future with plant-based foods. He opened the session with the note that previously quality of the plant-based meat, seafood, egg, or dairy alternatives was the most-pressing challenge to convince consumers to even taste the product, but it is no longer the point of debate as the brands have worked hard to deliver over 90% good quality alternative products. Gopal opened up with the question to the audience, “Now, what stops the consumers from trying these products?”. On receiving cost as the answer from the audience, he questioned again, “So, where is the cost factor coming from? Is it from the raw materials (ingredients), technology and equipment providers, production by brands, marketing, logistics/cold storage, government taxes and duties, or selling outlets/retailers?” To proceed with the session, he asked the panelists to share the challenges and confusion around cost and other factors in the plant-based meat, seafood, egg, and dairy alternative foods segment from different perspectives.

Plant-based meat for all

According to Sandeep Devgan, chief executive officer of Stonefield Flavours and co-founder of Shaka Harry, the plant-based market demands patience, collaboration, and consistency. He explained, “It has already been established that there is a market for plant-based meat alternatives, and globally, they are here to stay. There is a need to recognize that. The issue is that most people think that it’s a sprint, but it’s a marathon; we must be in for a long haul. However, there will be different challenges, and we will need support and different partners to build this industry. One or two people cannot do it. It requires a huge community.”

According to him, in India, with a huge population of 1.4 billion people, we need to understand what consumers think and how to get them on board. We should have a movement like ‘Plant-based meat for all.’ Since it’s a collaborative effort, there must be a lot of patience as it will take time.

Availability and Cost

According to Sohil Wazir, chief commercial officer of Blue Tribe Foods, availability and cost are the two significant challenges of the plant-based foods industry. He elaborated, “One of the major challenges is availability. Because of the frozen supply chain that our products fall under, we’re not able to get them distributed very well to all the corners of the country. The second is very obviously cost. India is a very cost and price-sensitive market—the cost of making a good product that can effectively replicate the same experience you get with meat. The cost of making these products is not less. Even our consumers tell us that they love the product and its taste, but this is not something we can afford. We must find innovative ways to reduce the cost of supplying the product to the community. We together need to work on this very strongly, and the time for that is now.”

Indu Kalra, commercial lead, Texturants Solutions - Specialty Ingredients, ADM, talked about the challenges, “Cost is not just a challenge for the companies, as mentioned. It is also a challenge for us (ingredient manufacturers/suppliers). As a global organization, production is done at a larger scale, so many factors contribute to the cost of manufacturing the ingredient. Covid’s impact on supply chains was one of the biggest challenges, and we are coming out of it now. Also, often we get compared based on the cost. However, the key is to understand the goals behind it. We need to come together, collaborate, and find solutions to bring down the cost of the final product.”

Adopt collaborative approach and incentivize the consumer

Regarding challenges, Pratichee Kapoor, Business Development Director for Middle East, Indian Subcontinent & Africa at Kerry said, “We need to consider the whole value chain and take every stakeholder into perspective. It is not just about how much cost and margin expectation an ingredient supplier like us carries in the value chain, but it involves each entity in the value chain. For example, plant-based largely being a frozen product, distributors expect larger incentives because it’s a difficult product to deliver. Then there are legitimate margin expectations from the brands. Every stakeholder is facing this challenge.”

She added, “Kerry, has 147 manufacturing locations across the globe, and we also produce texturized protein in the dry format and high moisture protein in frozen format. Unfortunately, at this point, because of the non-availability of certain key ingredients within India, we are dependent on importing our products into the Indian market. And this leads to cascading of the cost at the very first stage.”

She further highlighted that amount of duties one must pay is punitive, “The customs duties range between 40% to 50%. So, by the time we as a company even start to supply protein base, the product cost goes up to 2X. Hence, the first support we as an industry look to is the government, because plant-based products check all the boxes on sustainability, nutrition, and animal welfare. It is important that the government supports it as much as possible so that there can be lessening of cascading effect.”

She added, “When we talk about costs, everything unfortunately gets passed to the consumer. A lot of education has to be imparted, and a lot of effort on R&D. A more positive and sustainable approach is for all parties to adopt a more collaborative approach amongst all stakeholders to provide a product that tastes great, is more affordable, and which can gain scale. Let the trial happen, and it will only happen if we incentivize the consumers, not burden them.”

Sohail Wazir also highlighted that since there is no HSN classification for the products, the current taxation lacks consistency, and the consumer bears that front too.

Awareness

Milan Darji, food technologist, Consumer Foods and Value Nutrition, Buhler India, stated that consumers need more awareness and clarity about plant-based foods. According to him, if we create awareness, the product demand will increase. And if the demand for the product goes up, whatever the technological prices are there, it will automatically come down.

Filling the protein gap

Siddharth Ramasubramanian, founder and chief executive officer of Hello Tempayy (Vegolution India), stated, “While many consumers are consuming non-veg (animal meat products), there is still a market for us. There is an even larger number of vegetarian meal moments that lack protein. The Indian plate has chapatis and rice, which are at the center of the plate and have very little protein around. US plate or the Western has meat in the center and carbs around the side. So fundamentally, our plates are different. So, our solutions have been different and have to be different.”

“We think getting more protein into a cup on the side is more important. And that is where we felt the gap was, which is why we went potentially saying that there is an ingredient that breaks the monotony of paneer. And we never said let us stop eating. We said there is a bordem and a monotony around eating the same thing. There is an opportunity for you to give people another choice not to switch but another choice. Secondly, we have a deep food culture, and our palates run deep. People revert to the flavors they are used to. The third clear thing is that digitization and aspiration in India are growing. I feel optimistic every day about the opportunity in this country. I am optimistic about the fact that 65% of our country is under the age of 35. They are young, but their food habits are somewhat familiar. They are open to discovery. So, we were triangulating with this, which led us to focus on adding vegetarian protein to the main plate. I think the more we spend time on that, the more we are likely to create products that work for India because the market is large. For us filling the protein gap is good.”

Davendra Kumar, vice president (F&B Production) and executive chef Hotel Le Meridien, shared his point of view from a chef’s perspective and highlighted changing trends, the benefits of plant-based foods, and the way forward. He was optimistic that the consumers would understand the significant health value delivered and urged people to start consuming plant-based products.

Target consumer

Sandeep Devgan said, “Indians are vegetarian, but 70% of Indians are not. People love meat. They don’t eat meat every day. It’s already not part of their daily meal. On the weekends, weddings, and special occasions, meat consumption is there, but it still needs to be built into a daily lifestyle like in the Western world.” Speaking about bringing down the cost, he mentioned, “I urge everyone here to not just talk in silos. Let us pledge and work outside these four walls to bring awareness to the plant-based market/plant-based protein/plant-based Foods. We all know there is a market; we must educate the consumer and work with government bodies.”

Pratichee Kapoor believed that it is not right to box plant-based as an alternative meat product and said, “India is a protein deficient country. A huge opportunity can be had if you eat neutral products, which provide you with good protein share for the day.”

Key takeaway

Gopal concluded, “Now we all know the most important factor stopping the consumers from buying the products is the cost. So, to make it affordable, each stakeholder of the plant-based foods value-chain must work on bringing down the cost from their respective sides by sourcing or producing the ingredients within the country to reduce using imported ingredients, making technology advancements in the equipment and logistics, request the government bodies to implement an HSN code for these products, and regulate the taxes for plant-based products on par with the meat products to level the playing field for the brands”. Finally, it is important to create constant awareness of the benefits of consuming plant-based products, such as healthier, bringing variety to the diet, and better for the planet. The stakeholders of this plant-based value chain must work together in all the ways mentioned above to reduce the consumption of animal-based and seafood products to create an alternative sustainable future.