Entrepreneurs seek a plant-based slice of Southeast Asia’s US$600 billion pie
- A ‘shift in perceptions’ accelerated by the pandemic, has seen a growing awareness of the health benefits of a plant-based diet
- Southeast Asia saw a 440 per cent increase in vegan and vegetarian plant-based product launches between 2016 and 2020
Indonesia’s Helga Angelina Tjahjadi is one of them. She was 15 years old when she decided to become a vegetarian to try to scale down the severity of her autoimmune disease, which she said “gradually healed” within two years of changing her diet. After moving to the Netherlands to complete her undergraduate studies, she met a fellow Indonesian vegetarian, Max Mandias, who was to become her husband.
At that time, demand for plant-based meat in the Southeast Asian nation was practically non-existent. “Our first three years, it was like a desert. We were the only player [offering plant-based meat] and our effort to educate the market was really exhausting,” Helga said. “Healthy food was not even trendy, let alone plant-based food,” added the co-founder and chief executive of Green Rebel and Burgreens.
Demand began to gradually increase in 2016, when healthy food players, which typically offer low-calorie meals using animal-based protein, launched more outlets. But the plant-based trend really only gained momentum three years ago, according to Helga.
