The old times, when vegans were publicly seen as someone ‘weird’, ‘extreme’, ‘crying for attention’ or ‘health-hazardous’, are forever gone. The public opinion about veganism and vegan diet is shifting rapidly. The veganism is slowly turning to be mainstream. More and more people have been discovering great reasons why to go vegan and make a positive impact on environmental sustainability and animal wellbeing.
The vegan market has been exploding in the last couple of years. Like, literally. A large number of food companies has noticed a massive demand for plant-based food and it’s happening worldwide. And due to many data collecting companies, this is just a beginning of something even bigger. If you consider starting your own business, then keep reading. Here I bring you some of the leading reasons why you should join other vegan entrepreneurs and open a vegan business in 2018.
Numbers don’t lie
Speaking for Australia, according to market researcher Euromonitor International, the current vegan market is worth nearly $136 million, and it’s expected to continue growing and reach $215 million by 2020. These are really impressive numbers which make Australia the third fastest growing vegan market in the world, just after the United Arab Emirates and China. Australia has also become the fourth biggest vegan market platform worldwide after the U.S. market ($1.75 billion), Germany ($614 million) and Great Britain ($507 million).
This trend can be observed elsewhere in the world. The absolute leader of the vegan living is the United States where the plant-based sells went up by an outstanding 8.1% during the last year!
The ‘alternative’ milk industry has been experiencing the big boom over the last 5 years. In Australia, the non-dairy industry is currently estimated to be worth about $150 million. The popularity of non-dairy alternatives has been rising significantly – about 6% annually in the last five years. Supermarkets adapted to this trend very quickly and pack their shelves with soy, almond, hazelnut, macadamia, coconut, oat or rice milk.
Vegan cheese is another segment of the vegan market which has been growing substantially over the last few years. Globally, the vegan cheese market is estimated to reach almost $4,000 by 2024! Since 2016, the vegan cheese market has been growing 7,6% per year, expected to grow at this pace for next 6 years.
There are several profound changes in the egg industry, too. Australian consumers have started thinking about the lives of hens in egg farms and prefer buying cage-free eggs. For the first time, the sale of cage-free eggs has passed caged eggs. The egg production is overall in slight decline and this trend is expected to continue.
The growing vegan trends reflect clearly in the meat substitute market as well. Globally, the market is expected to garner a revenue of $5.2 billion by 2020. The data show an annual growth rate of 8.4% during the researched period 2015-2020. Consumers opt for meatless options, such as tofu, tempeh, seitan or textured vegetable protein, much often than ever before.
Vegan investments are popular and successful
The big companies all around the world have noticed a massive demand for vegan food and came up with their own vegan supplements and have already succeeded to turn them from a venture to a great profit. For example, the big pizza chain Domino’s in Australia recently introduced vegan cheese mozzarella and the answer was unbelievably positive. The vegan cheese was initially launched as a trial, but due to a big demand, it has become permanent.
In the U.S. the competition is getting really serious. Vegan-oriented start-ups are not only extremely popular but they are spreading all over the United States. Two vegan start-ups, Beyond Meat, and Impossible Foods keep opening new branches and customers love it! The Beyond Meat new release ‘the Beyond Sausage‘ claims to have exactly the same texture as pork, but it’s much healthier due to lower sodium, higher protein, and less fat and calories. The Beyond Sausage has become an absolutely new trend, even among meat eaters.
Surprisingly, even traditionally meat-based companies see where the market is going and involve more vegan or at least vegetarian options on their menu. The burger giant McDonald’s introduced its first vegan burger ‘McVegan’. The burger is currently served in hundreds of restaurants across Finland and Sweden. According to one of the independent burger testers, the burger ‘tasted like a normal, regular hamburger’.
If you live in Australia, you probably heard about fast food vegan restaurant Lord of the Fries. This is just another example of a successful vegan business. The company started as a food truck fast food 10 years ago but the founders recognized the potential of quickly changing trends in eating towards a vegan lifestyle. Today, they have 15 stores in Australia and other 2 in New Zealand and they continue growing.
The success of vegan businesses is undeniable. Therefore, every 7 new start-ups out of 15 are vegan or plant-based-oriented. Among others, the vegan butcher was named as one of 7 top new jobs trends in the last year.
The vegan business is not only about food
The vegan market is not growing only in food production, but in other industries, such as cosmetics or fashion, too. Many companies are turning to cruelty-free options and care more about protecting the environment and produce less waste.
Some of the least expected companies made a surprising step and shifted toward to vegan products, too. For instance, the Australian condom brand Hero was found just 5 years ago. Its founder launched vegan sexual health products to fight HIV and AIDS in Africa and also because he noticed a gap in Australia’s sexual product industry. The company produces plant-based personal lubricant (made of aloe vera), and condom which are not tested on animals, nor contain any animals products.
More and more beauty brands care about animals wellbeing and make sure that their products are not tested on animals. Well-known beauty brand Hourglass Cosmetics has been vegan since 2004 and ultimately became the first vegan luxury cosmetics brand in the world. A few years later, other brands follow. For example, the beauty icon of the last year, Rihanna, claims that her make-up brand Fenty Beauty is 100% cruelty-free. Other popular cosmetics figure KateVon D committed to cruelty-free and vegan products.
About fashion vegan trends, there have been so many interesting ideas on how to incorporate vegan trends. We witnessed many products which substitute an animal leather and other animal-made materials. In the last couple of years, we could see clothes made of mushrooms, pineapple peels or shoes made of apple peels. The grape leather was even rewarded and became incredibly popular.
The vegan living penetrates into a technology area, too. In December last year, the 3D candy printer arrived in England. With this invention, customers can print plant-based candies with their favorite picture or selfie in less than 5 minutes. Another 3D printer was announced by BeeHex company in collaboration with Cali’flour company last year. Customers now can make cauliflower-based personalized pizzas with their favorite print.
Vegan trends are taken seriously
The enormous demand for vegan products has been taking more seriously lately. It would be surprising if the vegan boom market went unnoticed by the higher authorities.
In 2016, the whole vegan thing was taken to another level and made some politicians at least talk about it. Due to the popularity of vegan products, Germany’s agriculture minister called for re-label of some ‘pseudo-meat’ products, such as vegetarian schnitzel or vegan curry sausage. According to his words, consumers often ended up confused about what product they were actually buying. The minister suggested creating new, clearer and more transparent labels which will be more suitable for a type of a product.
Similar issues appeared in the U.S. earlier this year. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Congressman Peter Welch of Vermont came up with the Dairy Pride in which introduced the idea of stop calling plant-based dairy alternatives as ‘milk’.
This year gives you a great opportunity for a vegan business
If you think about opening your own business, this year gives you an amazing opportunity to slip into a brand new, exciting, yet very profitable business vegan world. As I proved to you in this article, the consumers’ demand for vegan and cruelty-free products is steadily on the rise and it will stay like this for at least the next 6 years.
If you already have a business, you might consider veganizing it. The plant-based business revolution is yet to come soon and you better be part of it!
Have you ever considered running a vegan business? If yes, what holds you back? Let me know in comments or share with your friends. There might be someone who needs to be encouraged to start a vegan business!
Klara Walterova
Klara is a professional freelance writer for hire. She offers web content, blog posting, ghostwriting and copywriting. She writes for a healthy lifestyle, wellness and travel websites. She focuses on veganism and the vegan diet. When she's not writing, she develops new tasty vegan recipes, travels the world or plays with her cats. Please contact her for her online writing services on her website writtenbyvegan.com or visit her Instagram profile @writtenbyvegan.