Heura: Spain’s Plant-Based Meat Leader Enters Italian Market

Heura, the Barcelona-based vegan meat brand has entered the Italian market offering Mediterranean-inspired plant-based chicken to Italian consumers, further expanding the company’s already strong presence across the wider European region. 

Heura’s products will be available in the Italian market on the Glovo app, in the Glovo Market section, all 7 days a week with users in Milan having the option to order Heura products directly to their place of residence.

According to recent research by Rome-based Eurispes, over 26% Italians said the climate crisis was the most urgent issue from a health and social wellbeing point of view. Amongts 18-24-year-olds, the percentage was over 34%.

In keeping with this trend, Heura entered the Italian market and consumers will be able to purchase the brand’s plant-based chicken, developed from sustainably sourced soy, olive oil, salt, and spices and the recipe also contains vitamin B12.

Apart from being known for its Mediterranian heritage, in terms of nutrition, Heura’s plant-based alternatives stand out for its ‘clean’ label, boasting the same amount of protein compared to conventional chicken while containing only a third of fat (43% less fat than the industry average).

In a press release seen by Green Queen, CEO and co-founder of Heura, Marc Coloma said that the company is delighted to bring Heura to Italy. “It is a fast-growing plant-based market and a country where gastronomy and the culinary traditions are at the centre of everyday life. They love food as much as we do. The current model of production and consumption of animal meat is ethically and ecologically unsustainable. Multiple studies have shown that intensive animal breeding is one of the main causes of the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, producing 14.4% of global emissions – more than the entire transport sector. It is most responsible for land consumption, with the conversion of forests and green areas into grazing land to grow feed for animals, and for the use of water.”

The current model of production and consumption of animal meat is ethically and ecologically unsustainable. Multiple studies have shown that intensive animal breeding is one of the main causes of the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, producing 14.4% of global emissions – more than the entire transport sector

Marc Coloma, CEO and co-founder of Heura

Heura is the only plant-based meat company that uses olive oil in its products, the result of the work of interdisciplinary research as well as a development team that includes food engineers, nutritionists, and biochemists.

Furthering its sustainability initiatives, the company wants to slash its plastic consumption by 12.85 tons each year and for this purpose it recently rolled out its new packaging, made out of 100% recycled cardboard, thus reducing plastic use by 80%. The new packaging is also microwaveable and can be easily separated to be completely recyclable.

Just recently, the company announced in its annual report that it has recorded a threefold increase in its annual turnover finishing 2020 with US$9.69 million, up from US$3 million in 2019 despite the pandemic and also more than doubled its international presence with its products available in fourteen countries across the world.

Coloma added that the carbon emissions caused by real meat is unsustainable. “If this is the real cost of meat, it is essential to introduce products on the market that honour our culinary traditions, but which at the same time create a more sustainable future. We must provide an option that allows the consumer to make fully informed choices. In fact, what we offer is not intended to be a substitute for meat, but a successor to it.”

According to the company, each package of Heura chicken saves over 770 liters of water, the equivalent of 12 showers and 0.77Kg of CO2.

Its latest market entry into Italy follows the U.K. market entry that happened back in October of last year, where its products are retailing at two major plant-based specialty stores. 

Since its inception in 2017, Heura has introduced its vegan chicken alternatives to Hong Kong and Singapore in partnership with Green Monday, and is also available in Portugal, Andorra, France, Chile and the Netherlands totalling 3,000 points-of-sale worldwide. 

In a 2019 interview with Green Queen, Heura’s co-founder and CMO Bernat Añaños said he believes that the only sustainable direction the world is heading to is plant-based. “Once plant-based meat becomes as accessible, democratic, and looks, tastes and costs the same as traditional meat, the entire world will choose it.”

Lead image courtesy of Heura.