Meat alternatives are becoming increasingly popular in Germany

Higher production volumes

03. May 2024 5:57 p.m. Robert Klatt

Vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives are becoming more and more popular in Germany. Meat consumption, on the other hand, is declining.

Wiesbaden (Germany). Vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives are becoming increasingly popular in Germany. A study by the company Beyond Meat recently showed that around half of the population can only imagine grilling plant-based products in the future. Also new data from Federal Statistics Bureau (Destatis) show that more and more meat substitutes are being sold in the Federal Republic. In 2023, 16.6 percent more meat substitutes were produced than in the previous year. Compared to 2019, the production volume has more than doubled.

According to Destatis, around 121,600 tonnes of vegetarian and vegan meat substitutes were produced in Germany in 2023. These represented a total value of around 583.2 million euros, which corresponds to an increase of 8.5 percent compared to the previous year. Furthermore, the number of companies producing meat substitutes in Germany has increased significantly, from 51 in 2022 to 67 in 2023.

Meat consumption has decreased significantly

Along with increasing production volumes of vegan and vegetarian meat substitutes, meat consumption in the Federal Republic has decreased. According to the Federal Agricultural Information Center (BZL), this amounted to an average of 51.6 kilograms per person in 2023. In 2019, meat consumption was 58.8 kilograms per capita. According to the BZL, this significant decline is mainly due to greater consumer awareness of the health and environmental effects of high meat consumption.

Despite these developments, vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives remain niche products in Germany. In 2023, meat production was worth around €44.8 billion, around 80 times more than the value of alternative products.