European plant-based food sector grows by 49% in 2 years

Over the last few years, supermarkets and discounters in Europe have been offering more and more plant-based options. From meat alternatives to plant-based milk, supermarkets and discounters continue to increase their shelf space for plant-based alternatives due to the ever-growing demand. Now, the market data for Europe’s plant-based sector is being published for the first time in a collaboration between Nielsen MarketTrack and Proveg International. The results reveal the true extent of the acceleration of plant-based consumption over the past three years. The Smart Protein project analyzed the results and made astonishing findings.

Plant-based foods in Europe: How big is the market?

The published report covers retail data from 11 European countries for the past three years, providing unprecedented insights into European consumer habits, and helping retailers and manufacturers to decide where they should place their focus.¹

1. This analysis is based on scanning data from 11 countries and covers six different plant-based product categories in each country, depending on availability: Austria (Plant-based (PB) meat, milk, and yoghurt); Belgium (PB meat, milk, and yoghurt); Denmark (PB meat, milk, yoghurt, cheese, and ice cream); France (PB meat, milk, and yoghurt); Germany (PB meat, milk, yoghurt, cheese, ice cream, and fish); Italy (PB meat, milk, yoghurt, cheese,and  ice cream); Netherlands (PB meat, milk, yoghurt, and cheese); Poland (PB milk); Romania (PB meat and milk); Spain (PB meat, milk, and yoghurt); United Kingdom (PB meat, milk, yoghurt, cheese, and bakery items). The report shows sales values in Euros and sales volumes in kilograms or litres for the overall market, including discounters, as well as for discounters separately. The data covers moving annual totals for Sep/Oct (depending on the country, between calendar weeks 39 and 42) 2018 vs 2019 vs 2020. This means that it represents the total sales values from October 2017 to September 2018 versus October 2018 to September 2019 versus October 2019 to September 2020. The data comes from Nielsen MarketTrack and was compiled by ProVeg International.