A customer collects a package of Impossible Burger herbal meat during the launch of the Impossible Foods Inc. grocery store product. at Gelson’s Markets in Los Angeles, California, USA, on Friday, September 20, 2019.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Impossible Foods reduces suggested prices for American grocery stores by 20% and brings it closer to achieving price parity with the meat it is trying to replace.
Recommended retail prices for Impossible’s meatless burgers are now $ 5.49 for pies and $ 6.99 for a 12-ounce package. Price cuts make meat alternatives cheaper than ever, but consumers will pay even more than double for the Impossible Burger, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s national beef sales report for the week ending February 4th.
Outside the United States, double-digit price cuts are also being implemented for impossible products in grocery stores.
This is the first time the private company has lowered retail prices, but the third time in the last year the company has discounted the products permanently. Restaurant distributors received price reductions in 2020 and again in January.
In the last year, the number of supermarkets carrying Impossible Foods meat substitutes has increased 113 times. It’s also done in a 47-location test at Costco Wholesale, which could cause even more retail stores to carry their products.
The coronavirus pandemic fueled new interest in meat substitutes, as more consumers turned to grocery stores to get their food supply and Covid-19 outbreaks at meat packaging plants went cause some stocks of meat products.
“Our plan was not to move so fast into retail last year until Covid hit,” President Dennis Woodside said in an interview.
Impossible’s production capacity has multiplied by six since 2019, which helps it meet all this new demand. Woodside said the company’s manufacturing has become more efficient as it runs its production lines more often and adds more changes to its schedule. He also said that as impossible foods grow, so do their suppliers.
“They are able to transfer the savings to us,” he said.
Rival Beyond Meat has also been working to reduce its prices as more competition enters the market. Last summer he sold frozen value packets of his meatless burgers. Shares of Beyond have risen 61% in the past year, giving the company a market value of $ 11.1 billion.
In addition to facing competition from other companies selling realistic meat alternatives, Impossible and Beyond could soon face pressure from cell-based meat manufacturers. Future Meat Technologies, an Israel-based company, said Monday it reduced the cost of producing a farmed chicken breast to $ 7.50. So far, Singapore is the only country that has approved the sale of laboratory meat after granting permission to eat in December.
“Ultimately, what we’re all competing against is the £ 1 trillion industry, which is the current animal-based protein industry,” Woodside said.