On May 2, local time in the United States, Beyond Meat, a company, was listed on Nasdaq, becoming the first artificial meat stock. The stock price rose 163% at the close of the day, which is also the highest increase on the first day of listing among companies with a market value of more than 2000.
As a food company, Beyond Meat received unimaginable growth last year: revenue in 2018 was US$87.9 million, revenue increased by 170% year-on-year and gross profit margin of 20%.
Of course, the food produced and sold by Beyond Meat is also different from ordinary food companies.
Beyond Meat was founded in 2009, with founders Ethan Brown, along with Dr. Fu-hung Hsieh and Harold Huff of the University of Missouri, beginning to develop artificial meat.
▲ Beyond Meat Meat Meat patty pressing process
They use beans and other plant protein as raw materials, and arrange plant proteins into the fiber structure of meat through heating, cooling, pressurization and other methods, and continue to test and improve until Beyond Meat can taste the real thing.
Beyond Meat said in its prospectus: The breakthrough in food production has made those carnivorousists their customers and directly participated in the $1.4 trillion global meat industry competition.
Beyond Meat also said in its prospectus that 93% of Beyond burger customers will also buy animal protein products during the same period, which means that Beyond Meat’s main customers are not vegetarians.
Only 55% of the crops produced worldwide each year are consumed directly by humans, about 36% are used in animal husbandry, and 9% are used in the production of biofuels and industrial products. If we need to feed more people on the earth and reduce the impact of animal husbandry and meat industries on the environment, it is indeed a good idea to let people on earth eat more vegetarian food.
At the same time, the meat industry is also a major carbon emitter. Data given by John Hoking, a university that is an authoritative in the public health field in the United States, shows that animal meat products account for 17%-34% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Although what humans eat and how they eat will affect the earth's environment, Beyond Meat can grow rapidly. In addition to occupying the moral commanding heights of environmental protection and animal welfare, as a food, the most important thing is still: how it tastes.
Currently, Beyond Meat's products are mainly benchmarked against beef, pork and poultry. The signature product is artificial meat burgers, which tastes similar to beef burgers.
Have eaten Beyond Food Friends told me that their burger is really similar to real beef when you bite it. It tastes pretty good. They have another food that imitates the flavor of chicken, and it is like a dried-grilled chicken strip.
To a certain extent, Beyond Meat is actually the same type of food as the soy products called " vegetarian chicken , vegetarian duck" in vegetarian restaurants. But Beyond Meat can make these foods very much like meat, taste accepted by the public, and can be mass-produced and sold.
In addition to making plant protein products delicious, one of the successes of Beyond Meat is the protection of its own proprietary technology and intellectual property rights. The brand concept they have created and the technology they own make it a veritable celebrity technology company.
Overall, Beyond Meat changes the path people get protein . Instead of raising animals with plants, one can get protein from the animals directly.
This not only increases the percentage of the heat contained in crops that are absorbed by human use, but also reduces animal slaughter, and changes people's original meat consumption behavior and changes the meat production industry.
