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The Silicon Valley food tech famous for its heme-filled “bleeding” plant-based burger patty, Impossible Foods, has just green-lighted an initiative in Singapore to allow distributors and restaurants to sell its plant-based meat to consumers. It comes amidst the coronavirus pandemic, which has kept Singapore residents on lockdown for weeks. The initiative hopes to provide a means for the struggling food service industry to stay afloat, and is only the second country outside of the United States to have Impossible products available directly to consumers.
Impossible Foods has just allowed its Singapore distributors and restaurant partners to resell their stock of its plant-based meat to consumers as coronavirus lockdown “circuit breaker” measures have halted dine-in customer traffic.
“We launched a similar initiative in the United States in April to give our F&B partners another means to earn revenue and feedback from both restaurants and consumers has been very positive, leading us to take a similar approach in Singapore,” said a spokesperson for the company.
Each 2.27 kilogram “brick” of the plant-based meat will be sold for around SGD88.90 (US$61.58) before goods and services tax, and will be available to buy for around a month. Selected restaurants that will offer the product include Classic Fine Foods, Fatboy’s, Park Bench Deli, Rubato Italian Kitchen & Bar, Straits Chinese and the Goodburger Food Truck.
Priced at around US$27 per kilogram of the product, the Impossible’s plant-based meat is around 3.5 times that of the average portion of conventional minced Brazilian beef in local supermarkets, or around the same as high-end Wagyu mince beef, according to Asia plant-based industry expert Michal Klar.
Read: 7 best vegan Impossible dishes to order on Deliveroo in Hong Kong
This marks the first time Impossible will be available directly to consumers in Singapore since it landed in restaurants in the city-state last March, and is the only country outside of the United States where Impossible Foods is sold for retail. It is available in over 2,700 grocery stores across the US. In Hong Kong and Macau, consumers hungry for the bleeding vegan beef analogue can enjoy it at hundreds of restaurants.
“From our experience in the US, we know that selling Impossible inventory can be a valuable means of supporting our partners’ businesses…We’re also very excited to give Singapore customers an opportunity to cook Impossible in their own homes, as we know that many are eager to see the product on shelves at grocery stores,” said senior vice-president of international at Impossible Foods Nick Halla.
Impossible Foods’ spokesperson also alluded to the company’s long-term plans to be able to offer its products for commercial retail globally, without announcing any further additional details about timing.
Read: Impossible Foods eyes Asia market & launches 2 new plant-based pork products
Earlier last month, Impossible Foods raised a whopping US$500 million Series F funding round and while its product is markedly more expensive in Singapore for the meantime, the company said it had plans to slash prices to foodservice distributors by 15% to make their products “ubiquitous, super mainstream and super mass market”.
It also said it will be introducing more vegan-friendly and sustainable meat substitutes to its product line in the near future, and has ambitious plans to “undercut the price of conventional ground beef”.
While the coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly affected every sector of the global economy, especially the global food supply chain, the plant-based industry has fared relatively well. Amidst slaughterhouse virus outbreaks and empty supplies of beef and pork in supermarkets, consumers are now opting for vegan products more than ever before and investor interest into the plant-based sector has exploded.
Want more news on Impossible Foods? Read our earlier coverage here & check out more plant-based stories here.
Lead image courtesy of Impossible Foods, designed by Green Queen Media.
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