How US start-up’s plant-based JUST Egg plans to crack mainland China’s market
Firm, which will first target biggest cities, also plans to launch cell-cultured chicken nuggets soon
JUST, the Silicon Valley food technology start-up, has announced plans to roll out its innovative vegan egg product in mainland China over the the coming months.
China is the largest egg producer in the world – accounting for more than 35 per cent of all eggs produced around the globe
The product, JUST Egg, made from mung beans and free of antibiotics and cholesterol, will be made available on shop shelves, e-commerce websites and food services.
Speciality supermarket retailers City'super and Hema – owned by Alibaba Group, the owner of the South China Morning Post – popular business-to-consumer platforms Tmall and JD, and the healthy Shanghai restaurant chain, Hunter Gatherer, have all signed on as partners.
Food security is so critical in China and we think it is our opportunity for China to not only see itself in a more self-sufficient way, but also create a new industry
Before this, the award-winning food manufacturing company marked its international foray into Asia last year by way of Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore.
The Asian-Pacific food and beverage industry news website, FoodNavigator-Asia, said JUST, which is backed by Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-shing, will first target Chinese consumers in metropolitan cities such as Beijing and Shanghai and spread across the rest of the country within the next three years.
“Food security is so critical in China and we really think that it is our opportunity for China to not only see itself in a more self-sufficient way, but also to create an entirely new industry,” Josh Tetrick, CEO of JUST, said.
“Right now, food requires so much land, so much water and egg production requires billions of chickens.