In the view of industry insiders, the performance of domestic and foreign artificial meat companies is sluggish, mainly due to the weakening of market demand and the market vitality has not yet been activated. Taking the Chinese market as an example, the development of my country's artificial meat market is still in its early stages, and there are still development bottlenecks in terms of technology, taste, price, and consumer acceptance.
's loss has expanded, and its stock price has fallen below the issuance
html On May 15, according to the US CNBC website, consumers' interest in meat substitutes is weakening, and the stock price of artificial meat company Beyond Meat is 87% lower than its historical high.information shows that Beyond Meat was founded in 2009 and provides plant-based meat products services, including ready-to-eat meat and frozen meat from brands such as The Beyond Burger and Beyond Sausage. In May 2019, Beyond Meat was listed on Nasdaq at an issue price of US$25, becoming the first artificial meat company in the United States. The stock price soared 163% on the first day of listing, and once reached a high of US$221. However, the company has never reached its former high since then, and its stock price has been falling since July 2021.
Beyond Meat's sharp drop in stock price is not unrelated to its continued losses in performance. According to the financial report, BeyondMeat's net revenue in the first quarter was US$109.5 million, and increased 1.2% year-on-year; the net loss was US$100.5 million, which is an expansion trend compared with the net loss of US$27.27 million in the same period last year. After the first quarter financial report was released, Beyond Meat's stock price plummeted 25% after the market closed to $20.58, falling below the issue price of $25 when it was listed in 2019 for the first time.
According to the financial report, Beyond Meat's loss has further expanded the main attributable to 's high-cost manufacturing process and continuous growth in marketing investment. "On the one hand, the company's gross profit margin in the first quarter was reduced due to the launch of Beyond Meat Jerky, a plant beef jerky product that adopts complex and high-cost manufacturing processes; on the other hand, the increase in investment in marketing activities and the increase in outbound freight fees led to the company's operating losses." BeyondMeat disclosed in its financial report.
It is worth noting that Shuangta Food, an important partner in Beyond Meat upstream raw materials, has not escaped the decline in performance. On April 19, Shuangta Food released its first-quarter performance announcement stating that its revenue in the first quarter of 2022 was approximately RMB 449 million, a year-on-year decrease of 4.06%; its net profit was approximately RMB 51.48 million, a year-on-year decrease of 48.3%.
It is reported that as early as early 2020, Shuangta Food announced that it had signed an 85% pea protein sales contract with Beyond Meat through its wholly-owned subsidiary Zhaoyuan Junbang Trading Co., Ltd., with the first batch of pea protein purchases of 628,300 pounds (about 285 tons). In the future, the two parties will continue to increase the number of pea protein purchases according to market demand. It is worth noting that Shuangta Food launched "artificial meat" mooncakes before the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2019, with the real name "French Vegetarian Meat Mooncakes", which is due to this. Shuangta Food was also known as the "first stock of artificial meat in China" in the industry.
The concept of "artificial meat" has entered a cooling-off period
The performance of domestic and foreign "first stock of artificial meat" has both declined. What happened to the "artificial meat" that once stood at the capital trend?
"Beyond Meat's continued loss in performance is mainly due to its increased costs and weakening demand for artificial meat market. At present, the technological maturity of the entire artificial meat industry is not enough and the cost structure is not reasonable. It is difficult to promote on a large scale in the short term. At this stage, the artificial meat market is more of a symbolic commercial attempt under the promotion of some radical groups." Shen Meng, director of Xiangsong Capital, analyzed.
In fact, judging from the US sales data, since 2021, the concept of artificial meat has gradually entered a cooling-off period. Public data shows that 2020 was one of the fastest growing industries in the United States, with annual sales increasing by 45% year-on-year, but total sales in 2021 did not increase but fell by 0.5%.
artificial meat that has encountered cold in the United States may usher in new development opportunities in the domestic market.The "14th Five-Year Plan for Bioeconomic Development" recently released by the National Development and Reform Commission proposed that "develop synthetic biology technology, explore and develop new foods such as 'artificial protein', realize the iterative upgrade of the food industry, and reduce the environmental resource pressure brought by the traditional breeding industry." Affected by this news, on May 10, the "artificial meat" sector of A shares collectively rose. Shuangta Food once hit the daily limit during the trading session, and the stock prices of Shandong Heda , Dongbao Bio and other stocks rose.
In the view of industry insiders, the release of relevant policies on artificial meat will not only promote the continuous iteration and upgrading of technology in the industry, but also make the cooperation of all links of the industrial chain more effective. With the support of policy dividends, my country's "artificial meat" market has broad development prospects.
"However, at present, my country's artificial meat industry still has certain development bottlenecks in terms of technology, taste, price, etc.." Zhu Danpeng, an analyst at China Food , analyzed that in terms of taste, texture, etc., artificial meat and real meat still have a certain gap in color, fragrance and taste after cooking; although artificial meat itself is supported by labels such as health and environmental protection, due to the limitations of technical barriers, its price is not cheaper than real meat.
Take Beyond Meat and Impossible Food as examples. In the US market, its artificial meat patties are priced at $12-16/pound, while the US minced beef price is $9/pound. In the Chinese market, the "plant burger beef patties" in the Tmall flagship store is a single box of 226 grams, and the price is 34.9 yuan, while the price of beef patties of the same specification is only about 25 yuan.
Zhu Danpeng said that as a leading artificial meat company, Beyond Meat has certain technical advantages, but its advantages are still difficult to stimulate market vitality at present, especially in terms of price and taste. If the technology cannot be further optimized and the cost structure is improved, it will be difficult for Beyond Meat to further expand its scale.
Regarding how Beyond Meat can improve the current situation of continuous losses in the future, a Beijing Business Daily reporter sent an email to interview the company, but no reply was received as of press time.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Guo Xiujuan Wang Xiao
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