The Plant-based ecosystem

Over the past few years, a lot of older brands across the vegan ecosystem have disappeared and a whole lot of new ones have appeared. Some trends and pointers.

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1.???? The word ‘vegan’ is losing favor; it almost seems to be ‘cultish’ in nature. Even vegetarians do not opt to go to a vegan place. So many restaurants call themselves Vegan and Vegetarian (like #EarthCafe in Bandra and Juhu); plant-based brand #GoodDot always called themselves vegetarian and never vegan. This way the audience reach seems to be larger.

2.???? Plant-based products have penetrated to not just modern retail, but in many cases, traditional retail as well. This is good and bad. Good as obviously, reach is higher. But bad because (a) in such outlets, the offtakes are normally low and hence they stop stocking after a while. And (b) the fully vegan outlets – online and offline see a decreasing trend in demand and face a slightly bleak future. So overall, the average reach decreases.

3.???? Like in most new categories, niche and small players start the process of market-creation but then the bigger players enter the fray with established channels and bigger muscle. #ITC and #Tata both have plant-based offerings now. Again, for them this is a small source of business and may or may not be sustainable. And the older first-mover brands die out. So the consumer loses at the end.

4.???? The key ingredient has played a major role in defining product portfolios. Soya started it, then pea-protein based mock meats came in. Now at least three brands that I know of, namely #Better, #Wakao and #Kathalfy have products based on raw jackfruit, which to many is a novelty. I wonder why Seitan is not used as a key ingredient in packaged food.

5.???? Most vegan restaurants do not have bars attached. The only one I know is one of the oldest ones called #BeanMeUp in North Goa. Some other Goan restaurants like #Zest and #Bibhitaki (both in South Goa) are ‘vegan forward’ but also serve non-vegan vegetarian food to keep people coming; specially those accompanying vegan consumers. Why is it generally assumed that vegans are tea-teetotalers?

6.???? As per my observation, Pune and Bangalore started off almost as the vegan capitals of the country but have made way for Bombay. Any part of the city has enough vegan options. Delhi needs to catch up a lot.

7.???? Closed groups online or offline or organizations like #Sharan are a lot of help when it comes to finding plant-based restaurants, events, pot-lucks etc.