Plant-based egg maker Eat Just eyes Asia, bets consumers will ditch animal protein
- More people will consume plant-based eggs than chicken eggs, with Asia emerging as a huge market for this substitute, says Eat Just’s CEO Josh Tetrick
- The faux-egg maker backed by Li Ka-shing is building a US$120 million plant-protein facility in Singapore, the company’s first in Asia
The consumption of plant-based eggs will outpace chicken eggs in the next decade, with Asia emerging as a big market for the food substitute, according Eat Just, a San-Francisco-based start-up that has drawn funding from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.
As people become increasingly health conscious, a lot of egg eaters will shift to plant-based eggs, said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and chief executive of Eat Just. The faux eggs are tastier and cheaper, and could eventually become an important source of protein that is loved equally by vegetarians and chicken-egg eaters, he added.
Founded in 2011, Eat Just makes a mung bean-based egg substitute under the brand Just Egg that comes in bottles and looks like beaten fresh eggs. The unicorn, which counts Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Li’s private investment unit Horizons Ventures among its investors, also makes a mayonnaise substitute, and sells its products in US stores including Walmart, Kroger and Whole Foods.
Now the company is eyeing expansion in Asia where egg consumption is on the rise. “Asia will be one of the most important places for us to grow in the next decade, as more people in Asia are eating chicken eggs than any other place on the planet,” Tetrick said in an interview.
Asia-Pacific was the largest region in the global egg market, accounting for 64 per cent of the market last year, according to Dublin-based Research and Markets. The global egg market, however, is expected to decline from US$200.8 billion in 2019 to US$198.4 billion this year mainly because of the economic slowdown across countries owing to the Covid-19 outbreak and the measures to contain it, the report said.