S. Korea's top conglomerates bet big on meat alternatives

South Korean conglomerates are rapidly shifting their eyes to the meat alternative market, which is estimated to reach $51 billion by 2025 amid growing consumer interest in environmentally-friendly products.

GS Ventures, a venture capital firm under South Korean retail giant GS Group, recently invested in SY Solution, a plant-based meat alternatives developer, the company said on Wednesday. Earlier in February, GS Retail together with Taekyung Nongsan, a unit of Korean instant noodle giant Nongshim, introduced ready-to-eat meat alternative products through the retailer’s GS 25 convenience stores.

Other Korean conglomerates are also rushing into the alternative food industry.

Korea’s second-largest business group SK Group has been actively expressing its strong interest in the business, with its Chairman Chey Tae-won voluntarily becoming an advocate for plant-based meat and other alternative food products like fermented protein ice cream and cell-grown salmon through his personal social media accounts.

The group’s namesake holding firm, SK, has invested 150 billion won ($108 million) in various food alternative companies, including alternative milk leader Perfect Day and plant-based meat producer Meatless Farm, since 2020.

Korea’s seventh largest conglomerate Hanwha Group has picked the alternative food business as one of its future growth engines. Its energy service affiliate Hanwha Solutions made an investment in New Age Meats, a startup producing hybrid plant-based and cultivated meat, last year, followed by additional equity investments made this year in American cell-cultured seafood alternatives producer Finless Foods and Korean cell-based meat startup DaNAgreen.

Lotte Group, No. 5 chaebol, launched meat alternative brand, Zero Meat, in 2019 and revealed a plan of investing over 2 trillion won in developing meat alternatives and other foods of the future.

A meat alternative is a food product made from plant-based ingredients such as beans to be eaten as a replacement for meat. Meat alternatives and other alternative food products have been growing popular across the world as consumers become more conscious of environmental issues and animal welfare.

According to a report by wealth manager UBS, the global meat alternative market is estimated to grow 34 percent annually on average to reach $50.9 billion by 2025. The market was valued at $6.7 billion in 2018. Kearney, a global management consulting firm, projects meat alternatives would occupy 10 percent of the global meat market in 2025, 28 percent in 2030, and a whopping 60 percent in 2040.

Food production is responsible for 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and production of alternative meat emits only 5 percent of greenhouse gas produced through conventional meat production, said an industry expert, adding that alternative meat would cut carbon emissions by 740 million tons in 2030.

Other Korean conglomerates in the country’s top 15 business group list have also jumped on the alternative food bandwagon. Shinsegae Food in July established Better Foods in the U.S. to manufacture plant-based food products. POSCO International has partnered up with local food tech startups Zikooin Company and HN Novatech for a global foray.

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