These 36 Vegan Corporations Simply Teamed As much as Disrupt the $330 Billion Seafood Market

The animal inhabitants of our oceans are in disaster. Overfishing and warming waters are liable for 70 p.c of the world’s fish shares being totally used or overused, based on the UN Meals and Agriculture Group. 

Fortunately, a brand new coalition, Future Ocean Meals (FOF), just lately shaped to assist take stress off of our fragile aquatic ecosystems by selling sustainable, plant-based options to seafood. 

Composed of 36 vegan corporations, the coalition is setting its sights squarely on the worldwide seafood market, which is at the moment valued at an estimated $330 billion. Spearheaded by Marissa Bronfman, the affiliation’s founder and government director, FOF goals to faucet into the burgeoning different seafood market by providing sustainable and progressive plant-based choices.

Boldly

Funding in different seafood has seen a staggering 92 p.c improve from 2021 to 2022, whereas United States retail gross sales grew 42 p.c throughout that interval. 

“I’m so excited in regards to the development potential for different seafood,” Bronfman tells VegNews. “In contrast to terrestrial meat, there are dozens of various seafood species to develop, permitting many extra corporations to commercialize and acquire market share.”

Catching the vegan seafood market wave

The timing for a coalition like FOF is essential, given the environmental and demographic challenges we face. Greater than 3 billion folks depend on seafood as their major protein supply, and with the world’s inhabitants anticipated to achieve 10 billion by 2050, the necessity for sustainable seafood options is extra pressing than ever. “We have now a local weather disaster and exponential inhabitants development,” Bronfman says. “We want sustainably scalable seafood options urgently.”

Whereas typical American diets concentrate on burgers and hen nuggets, seafood is a dietary staple in lots of cultures all over the world—underscoring the huge potential of plant-based options on this sector. Right here, FOF’s benefit is that it’s composed of corporations from 14 international locations, creating a various and dynamic power within the different protein market.

“In lots of locations all over the world, seafood performs a a lot bigger position and takes up an even bigger piece of the plate,” Bronfman explains.

This variety in seafood sorts presents a chance for innovation and market enlargement. This variety isn’t just geographical; 40 p.c of the member corporations are led by girls founders, and the coalition encompasses each B2B and B2C corporations throughout numerous levels of growth engaged on plant-based, cell-cultivated, and precision fermentation options to extra sustainable seafood. 

“That is what the way forward for our meals system has to appear like in an effort to be ethically environment friendly and sustainably scalable: numerous,” Bronfman says. “Our distinctive membership permits us to have a very world view on different protein and different seafood, whereas additionally having extremely deep insights and learnings from particular international locations and markets.”

Akua

Bronfman is especially excited in regards to the potential of microalgae and seaweed within the trade. “Many individuals select to eat fish due to the omega content material, nonetheless, fish don’t produce their very own omegas, they get hold of them from consuming microalgae,” she says. This understanding opens up progressive pathways to create merchandise that aren’t solely sustainable but additionally nutritionally useful.

FOF’s member corporations characterize a broad spectrum of the trade, from Akua within the US to Avant Meats in Singapore and Revo Meals in Austria. From a product portfolio variety perspective, FOF members create all the things from whole-cut fish to sushi, all with out harming the oceans.

As an illustration, Good Catch Meals (a subsidiary of of FOF member Depraved Kitchen) makes use of legumes to imitate shredded tuna whereas Boldly creates a broad vary of vegan seafood—from salmon to calamari rings to jumbo prawns, and extra—utilizing Japanese root vegetable konjac. 

Konscious Meals

In the meantime, FOF member Konscious Meals is disrupting the sushi trade with its frozen line of vegan sushi. Based by Yves Potvin (the visionary behind vegan firm Gardein Meals), Konscious just lately landed its vegan seafood contained in the sushi counter at Entire Meals Markets throughout the US. After which there’s Oshi, an organization devoted to perfecting the salmon filet with out harming fish.

Saving seafood for the subsequent era

The affiliation’s formation comes at a time when the world is grappling with a local weather disaster and important threats to ocean well being. The worldwide seafood trade, projected to surpass $700 billion by 2030, faces the daunting problem of assembly rising demand whereas coping with the potential collapse of worldwide fisheries by 2048 attributable to human-led destruction and local weather change.

FOF’s technique entails not simply the event of different seafood merchandise but additionally a complete strategy to sustainability. The affiliation is working to unite world stakeholders for knowledge-sharing and collaboration, improve training and consciousness of the advantages of different seafood for human well being and environmental sustainability, and improve the dietary profile of different seafood.

Boldly

The worldwide partnerships that FOF has solid are essential to its mission. Collaborating with organizations comparable to The Good Meals Institute, ProVeg Worldwide, and the World Group for EPA & DHA Omega-3s, FOF goals to rework the worldwide meals system by bringing collectively experience and sources essential to drive innovation and market penetration in different seafood.

“Although all of us have totally different backgrounds, we’re united in our mission to put in writing a brand new story for seafood,” Bronfman says.