Producer groups react as Beyond Meat comes to stores

The arrival of Beyond Meat patties in Canadian grocery stores doesn’t faze the head of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association (SCA).

“It’s one more competitor out there. We’ve been competing with veggie burgers, or everyone trying to call their things ‘burgers’ or ‘steaks,’ for a long time,” SCA chief executive Ryder Lee said.

California-based Beyond Meat Inc. announced earlier this year that its meatless patties, which were first marketed in Canada through A&W fast food outlets, would be hitting grocery store shelves starting May 1.

Lee said traditional competitors like chicken and pork remain a far greater source of pressure than what remains a fairly niche market for meatless protein.

But he did say the ever-more-sophisticated imitators did add to the importance of promoting the benefits of beef.

“You want to eat single-ingredient, simple food that helps you live supplement free? You should have beef in your diet,” he said.

Lee also noted the role cattle ranchers play in preserving the grasslands many equate with the Canadian Prairies.

“Remember that that grassland’s there because we’re raising cattle on it and that’s who’s taking care of that land,” he said.

Beyond Meat patties are just the latest example of products made using protein derived from pulse crops, with Beyond Meat using protein taken from peas.

Saskatchewan Pulse Growers executive director Carl Potts said the rise of such products was a welcome opportunity to boost domestic demand for Canadian pulses, the lion’s share of which remain an export crop to markets in India and China.

However, he said plant-only products were not where the biggest demand was being forecast.

“The Beyond Meat is a plant-based product entirely. But we think there’s more growth and volume potential in plant-and-animal protein blends,” he said, pointing to products like sausages that use a combination of meat and pulses.

Potts rejected the notion that the rise of meatless diets would pit pulse growers and ranchers against each other.

“I don’t see it that way at all,” he said. “As population grows globally, as the demand for protein overall increases within North America and as consumers want to consume more protein, we think that there’s room and growth opportunity for animal and plant-based protein.”

He said any competition would likely be dwarfed by opportunities to co-operate.

Lee joined Potts in suggesting it was unlikely the crop and livestock sectors would ever truly be pitted against each other.

He noted that almost no producer grows exclusively pulses and that other crops in their rotations such as wheat, barley and oats were routinely sold for animal feed.