Cultured meat "better placed" to disrupt than plant-based, says Barclays

Barclays has undertaken a wide-ranging piece of research, which it says shows "strong consumer acceptance” for cultured meat and says it expects it to hit price parity within five to 10 years.

Cultured meat is “better placed” to disrupt the alternative protein industry than plant-based, according to Barclays, which has forecast a $450bn market opportunity for cultured meat by 2040.

Barclays has undertaken a wide-ranging piece of research, which it says shows "strong consumer acceptance” for cultured meat and says it expects it to reach price parity with traditional meat within five to 10 years.

“The growing recognition of the importance of protein diversification within climate- mitigation strategies has led to several avenues of opportunity within the alternative protein landscape,” the research called “Cultured meat: from lab to fork” says.

“We now see the underlying technology behind cultured meat better placed to address consumer concerns relating to taste and sustainability, relative to existing plant-based products driven by recent regulatory approvals and company investment.”

The research will be a boon for stakeholders in the cultivated industry, which has taken a negative hit recently, with some questioning whether the industry will be viable at scale.

Barclays, though, says it believes the industry to be “highly scalable”, forecasting a $450bn market opportunity by 2040 – 20 per cent of the global meat market.

“In our view, it will likely take another 5-10 years before we see cultured products reach price parity with mainstream availability in food outlets," the research says.

It said it has based its analysis on three factors: regulatory approvals; pricing & manufacturing efficiency; and consumer adoption.

“Our consumer survey of 5,000 adults (China, India, Brazil, the US, the UK) suggests that two-thirds of adults would consider purchasing cultured meat – with higher acceptance among the younger demographic, emerging markets and surprisingly vegetarians/vegans,” it said.

“Following Singapore’s approval of cultured chicken in Dec-20, we have been encouraged by the level of investment activity as cultured meat companies continue to launch product prototypes and invest in production facilities.

“Public companies have been keen to gain exposure to the cultured meat value chain, a trend we anticipate will gather momentum given the broad range of B2B/B2C private companies and recent pure-play IPOs.

“We anticipate additional regulatory approvals in 2022, with the growing potential for cellular technology to also be applied to areas beyond meats (beef, chicken, pork), including cultured seafood, dairy and fats. “