The rise of plant-based food In Indonesia.

Source: Green Queen

Recently a lot of food companies in Indonesia have added a plant-based option in their menu, from Starbucks with their plant-based sloppy joe, to A&W with their vegan burger. The popularity of plant-based options is something that is caused by the customer’s demand.

Many people have recently discovered the necessity of leading a healthy lifestyle. Whether it is just to keep up with the crowd or because you’re sick of processed meat-based foods. Aside from health awareness, plant-based diets are increasingly popular for a variety of reasons. The most popular one is caused by diabetes. The prevalence of diabetic patients in Indonesia reaches 6.2%, which means that there are more than 10.8 million people with diabetes as of 2020. Most of the number try to consume plant-based diets. 

One of the healthy foods that are available and are quite popular is plant-based food. This food is a meat substitute but uses ingredients from plants or vegetables. Plant-based food is something that people are very fond of nowadays, especially after the release of Netflix Seaspiracy, a documentary about the sea and the creatures that live within it.

The Surge of Plant-Based Food’s Popularity Worldwide

According to the Good Foods Institute, sales of plant-based foods worldwide totaled USD 3.9 billion in 2017. In 2019, the market has grown to USD 5.0 billion, representing a 29% gain in just two years. Plant-based food sales are increasing rapidly, while conventional animal food sales are falling or growing relatively little.

The market for plant-based foods has exploded. Veganism has become mainstream in the last five years, with 2% of the population actively identifying as such.

In 2020 the popularity of plant-based food rose even higher, with new goods popping up everywhere from vegan bakeries and pastries to pizza, lattes, and even burgers. Analysts estimate that the plant-based food business would expand by 11.9% to USD 74.2 billion by 2027.

Because of improved taste, price, and accessibility, plant-based foods have become more marketable in recent years. Food producers of various types are introducing plant-based foods to their catalogs, from startups to prominent consumer packaged goods (CPG) businesses and the world’s largest meat companies. Milk, meat, dinners, ice cream/frozen goods, creamers, butter, cheese, and eggs are among the new food items.

Overview of Plant-Based Food in Indonesia

Diet trends, like culinary trends, are constantly changing. Including the plant-based diet, which appears to be gaining popularity among millennials. Many people are more worried about their health and have made dietary changes to improve their health. Not a few have even developed new hobbies and activities centered on cultivating veggies that would later be consumed as meal items.

The number of people who are more active in purchasing vegetables and fruit has climbed to 62%, while healthy food delivery services have increased by 7.4%. Amadeus Driando and Wida Winarno, food technology experts and plant-based dieters, said that this diet trend is expected to continue, particularly among Indonesian millennials. “I see that this trend continues to increase, although, in Indonesia, plant-based dieters are still in small numbers,” Ando told detikFood recently.

The Prospects Of Plant-Based Food Business in Indonesia

Based on the high percentage of development of Indonesian people’s interest in plant-based food that has been described earlier, it can be concluded that Indonesia has good prospects of a plant-based food business. This can be seen from many emerging start-up companies engaged in agricultural technology or agrotechnology in Indonesia. 

Sayur Box

During the pandemic conditions that crippled many businesses, on the contrary companies in the agrotechnology field experienced an increase in profits. One of them is SayurBox. Sayurbox is a platform for selling vegetables online that has a farm-to-table concept. Sayurbox has partnered with more than 1000 farmers in some cities in Indonesia who have the best quality organic vegetables. From its inception in 2016, SayurBox has 500,000 active users. 

Burgreens

In addition to the business of delivering agricultural products, there is a plant-based food business engaged in food and beverage. If the USA has Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, companies that support vegetarians by producing meat substitutes, Indonesia has Burgreens, the first alternative “meat” company that offers all-natural, MSG-free, no refined sugar, gluten-free, and 100% plant-based “meat” alternatives in Indonesia. Burgreens already has 12 branches spread across the metropolitan area, Jakarta, Indonesia. Although the business that was present from 2013 has its segmentation, Burgreen’s visitors are quite crowded. Visitors range from 80-100 people every day, with an average turnover of 5 million to 8 IDR million per week. The business has also collaborated with American beverage company Starbucks. Last February 2021, Starbucks in collaboration with Green Butcher by Burgreens developed three vegetarian menus. 

Amy’s Kitchen

In addition to the two Indonesian’s plant based food companies above, it turns out that many plant based food overseas companies have entered the Indonesian market. One of them is Amy’s Kitchen. Amy’s Kitchen is an american plant-based food company that offers over 250 products for vegetarians. Amy’s Kitchen entered Indonesia in 2019 under Rubiyat Indonesia, an importer & distributor company that focuses predominantly in the natural, organic, free-form, health oriented & active lifestyle products & brands. There are 15 products of Amy’s Kitchen that enter Indonesia’s market and have been distributed at lots of famous convenience stores in Indonesia.

The development of agricultural business and healthy food and beverage food made from plant trees is certainly motivated by changes in the Indonesian lifestyle. Currently, Indonesia Vegetarian Society (IVS) has more than 150,000 members and 64 branches in various cities in Indonesia. The vegetarian and vegan community in Indonesia is believed to have more than 2 million people. And every year the growth of the vegetarian and vegan community reaches the 2-digit figure. The number is believed to always increase every year. When viewed from the growth rate of vegetarians and people who live a healthy diet, plant-based food can become a new trend in the community. Based on The Global Vegetation Index published by Oliver’s Travel, Indonesia ranks 16th out of the 20 highest countries in The Global Vegetation Index. Indonesian cuisine is considered a vegetarian-friendly dish among the 183 countries included in the assessment. 

The potential and prospects of plant-based food business development in Indonesia are considered very good. To date, Indonesia already has more than 500 plant-based food businesses. However, it turns out that the figure is considered very low when compared to neighboring countries. Malaysia, which ranks third in the index, has 1185 vegetarian restaurants. So the comparison between restaurants with a population of only 26,687 population per one restaurant. Thailand, meanwhile, ranks second in the index with 908 restaurants with a ratio of 76,000 population per restaurant. 

This indicates that the plant-based food business market in Indonesia is wide open for domestic and foreign businesspeople. Overseas business people in the field of food and beverage, especially plant-based food, have great potential to bring products that have been successful in the country of origin to enter the Indonesian market. Thus, Bright Indonesia can help these business people to enter the Indonesian market.

Enter Indonesia’s Plant-Based Food Industry With BRIGHT Indonesia

BRIGHT Indonesia would help foreign plant-based food businesses to enter the Indonesian market through our services such as Business Registration and Establishment, Business Partnership Engagement , Management and Strategy Consulting, and Business Incubation and Accelerator. The services will help your business to:

1. Registering and establishing client companies in Indonesia. Help client companies obtain the work and stay permit for your foreign employee in the Indonesian office: expatriates utilization plan (RPTKA), expatriates utilization permit (IMTA), and limited stay permit (KITAS).
2. Secure the agreement between client companies and future Indonesian business partners by providing a list of potentially suitable partners, arrange business meetings, and act as a liaison.
3. Link client companies both from the private and public sectors in global foreign direct investment (FDI) through training and assisting your company in entering FDI source countries to gather investment for your company’s local markets.

For more information, email info@brightindonesia.net.

This article is written by Candy Bestari and Sintya Nur Muftiana