The Swiss population is showing no signs of becoming less carnivore. The CEO of a big meat processing firm has provided some insights into the industry.
According to the CEO of meat processor Bell, the trend towards meat substitute products is over. Sales of such substitutes are only growing by between 0% and 1% per year, which is why they have become a niche product, Marco Tschanz told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). He says the reasons for the stagnating growth are the taste and the high degree of processing needed by such ersatz products.
Tschanz also told the paper that the bigger picture hasn’t hugely shifted. “Consumers are paying more attention to animal welfare and the Swiss origin of products than they used to,” he said. “But we are not seeing less meat being eaten, on the contrary. In the case of chicken, for example, per capita consumption rose by around 8% last year alone.”
Tschanz doesn’t believe that chicken from US factory farms will catch on in Switzerland. “Even if sales were to be authorised, they wouldn’t stand a chance with consumers,” he reckons. Bell is not planning to import any chicken products from the US.
Meanwhile, Bell has noticed another trend: some consumers, facing tighter budgets, are switching to cheaper meat.