A customer picks up a package of Impossible Burger plant-based meat during the Impossible Foods Inc. supermarket product launch at Gelson’s Markets in Los Angeles, California, USA, on Friday, September 20, 2019.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Impossible Foods is slashing suggested prices for U.S. supermarkets by 20%, bringing it closer to achieving price parity with the meat it is trying to replace.
Suggested retail prices for Impossible’s meat-free burgers are now $ 5.49 for patties and $ 6.99 for a 12-ounce package. The price cuts are making meat alternatives cheaper than ever, but consumers will still pay more than double for the Impossible Burger, based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Beef Retail Report for the week ending Feb. 4.
Outside the United States, double-digit price cuts for Impossible products are also being implemented in supermarkets.
This is the first time the private start-up has dropped retail prices, but the third time in the past year that the company has permanently discounted products. Restaurant distributors got price cuts in 2020 and again in January.
In the past year, the number of supermarkets with Impossible Foods meat substitutes has increased by 113 times. It’s also in a trial in 47 locations at Costco Wholesale, which could result in even more stores selling its products.
The coronavirus pandemic sparked new interest in meat substitutes as more consumers turned to supermarkets for their food supply and Covid-19 outbreaks in meat packaging plants resulted in some meat products being sold out.
“Our plan was not to go into retail that fast last year until Covid hit,” President Dennis Woodside said in an interview.
Impossible’s manufacturing capabilities have increased sixfold since 2019, allowing it to meet all that new demand. Woodside said the company’s production has become more efficient as it uses its production lines more frequently and adds more shifts to the schedule. He also said that as Impossible Foods grows, so do its suppliers.
“They can pass on savings to us,” he said.
Rival Beyond Meat has also been working to lower prices as more competition enters the market. Last summer, it sold frozen packs of its meatless burger patties. Shares of Beyond are up 61% over the past year, putting the company at a market value of $ 11.1 billion.
In addition to competition from other companies selling realistic meat alternatives, Impossible and Beyond could soon face price pressure from the makers of cell-based meat. Future Meat Technologies, an Israeli company, said on Monday it has reduced the production cost of a farmed chicken breast to $ 7.50. Singapore is the only country so far to have approved the sale of lab-grown meat after approving Eat Just in December.
“Ultimately, what we’re all fighting against is the 1 trillion pound industry, today’s animal protein industry,” Woodside said.