Alternatives to meat and organic products have seen continued or exponential growth in supermarkets and specialty stores in recent years. But in these times of financial instability, things are in dire straits.

Market researcher IRI reports a shift in the sale of meat substitutes. In recent years there has been a sharp increase in sales (in 2020 even by 34 percent to 141 million euros), sales are now down by 5 percent.” While prices are trending towards each other. Last year, meat substitutes were Still 30 Sunny Van Beekveld, a researcher at the International Republican Institute, says:

Even more surprising is the stagnation in the turnover of organic products. “In the time of the Corona crisis, everyone was thinking about their health and mindful eating,” says Roosmarijn Saat of Gimsel organic supermarket in Rotterdam. “At the time, we had a huge tailwind. Now people are thinking mainly about their wallets. We really notice that sales have been under pressure since the summer.”

According to market researcher GfK, health food stores and health food stores in particular are seeing a decline in turnover. “Supermarkets are still seeing a small drop, but it can still come true,” says Norman Pace of GfK. Michael Wilde, director of Bionext’s umbrella, confirms the downward trend. “Since summer, growth in specialty stores has stopped.”

Sat is annoyingly surprised. She said this morning in Radio NOS 1 news.

The LTO also indicated last week that people are more likely to choose the cheaper option over the sustainable option due to lower purchasing power at the supermarket. “With the energy bill in mind, people are still leaving the local specialty product behind to go for the cheaper option,” said LTO CEO Sjaak van der Tak.

Entrepreneur Sat asks politicians to take action: “We need a government that makes choices. Abolish the value-added tax on organic products. Then these products will be accessible to more people.”

One customer at Gimsel doesn’t understand that organic products are on the way: “I’ve been buying organic my whole life. Yes, what do you think is more important? Three times a year on a plane trip or good food in your body? You do.”

At Schouten Europe in Giessen – a producer of private label meat alternatives – they were happier about the sales numbers. “In the time of corona we grew by 40 percent, and now we are at -7,” says Kees van den Heuvel. “This is a trend breaker. People are unsure about the future, there is low consumer confidence. We see consumers now often go back to traditional recipes. So just meat. That’s a shame.”

Van den Heuvel expects all of this to be temporary: “We know that people are very willing to take a step towards alternatives to meat. But it still often happens that consumers are disappointed with the taste. If the speakers are substituting meat once a week, So a lot of profit is already being made for the environment. And people know that and they will act accordingly soon,” that is his firm conviction.