中国肉价大涨，让人造肉公司看到了机会

全球肉类市场的市值已经达到2.7万亿美元，而Impossible Foods公司正计划打入该领域最重要的市场——中国，推出植物猪肉产品。

“我们的植物猪肉原型产品已经非常成熟。”Impossible Foods的首席执行官派特·布朗于11月6日在中国国际进口博览会上接受彭博电视采访时表示，“只需进行商业化和规模化生产即可。”

布朗表示，亚洲大国中国的肉类消费占全球总量的28%，“一直是我们最重要的目标市场”。他还补充说到，公司正在与中国潜在的合作伙伴和政府官员就相关事宜开展对话。

Jefferies的分析师西蒙·鲍威尔认为，植物肉成功进入中国会给新生的人造肉市场带来深刻变化。目前，植物肉在全球肉类消费中占比不足1%，而到2040年，这一数字将有望达到9%。Impossible Foods生产的植物牛肉汉堡目前已经在汉堡王等美国餐馆上架，也在试图打开欧洲市场。

猪肉占中国消费者每日肉食摄入量的六成以上，但非洲猪瘟的流行导致大量生猪退出市场，今年9月，猪肉价格飙升近70%，给家庭开支增加了负担。

“我们作为小型企业并不是要填补非洲猪瘟造成的市场空白，”布朗表示，“但疫情让人们进一步认识到，动物食品的生产多么脆弱性，也给我们提供了机会。这是实实在在的食品安全问题，我们希望能够帮助中国解决问题。”

布朗表示，中国政府官员“正在不遗余力地为减少环境足迹而努力，对食品安全问题也有非常清晰的认识。”

“中国只能生产所需肉类产品的四分之一，”他说。“因此，每当中国有人吃牛排，亚马逊都要忙碌一阵。”（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林

Impossible Foods Inc. is working to launch plant-based pork as it looks to enter China, the crown jewel of the $2.7 trillion global meat market.

“We already have very good prototypes of plant-based pork,” Chief Executive Officer Pat Brown said in a Bloomberg TV interview at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai on November 6. “It’s really just a matter of commercializing and scaling that.”

With China accounting for 28% of the world’s meat consumption, the Asian giant has “always been the most important country for our mission,” he said. His company is in discussions with potential local partners and Chinese government officials, he added.

A successful China entry would be a game-changer for the nascent imitation meat market, which currently accounts for less than 1% of the global meat consumption, but has the potential to reach 9% by 2040, according to Jefferies analyst Simon Powell. Impossible’s faux beef burgers are already served at Burger King and other restaurants in the U.S., while it’s also seeking to sell in Europe.

Over 60% of Chinese consumers’ daily meat intake is pork, but an epidemic of African swine fever has forced widespread hog culling. Pork prices spiked nearly 70% in September, hurting household budgets.

“As a small company, we are not going to fill the void left by the African swine fever epidemic,” said Brown. “But this is an opportunity as people are going to realize how vulnerable animal-based food production is. It’s a real food security issue and we want to help China solve that.”

Brown said that Chinese government officials “are really committed to reducing their environmental footprint and very aware of food security issues.”

“Demand for meat exceeds by a factor of four what China can produce on its own land,” he said. “That’s why every time someone eats a steak in China, a little puff of smoke goes up in the Amazon. ”