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Omnipork

Plant-Based News Round-Up: OmniPork in America, $3M for Alternative Cheese

Earlier this month, Bloomberg Intelligence released a report called “Plant-Based Foods Poised for Explosive Growth” that stated the alternatives proteins and dairy market could increase to $162 billion in the next decade. The plant-based space is seemingly always expanding, innovating, and churning out news. To keep you updated, we’ve gathered recent updates on companies in the space, including Omnipork, Hooray Foods, and Misha’s Kind Foods.

Omnipork launches in Sprouts and whole foods locations throughout the U.S.

Omnipork, a China-based brand owned by OmniFoods, announced this week that it has brought its alternative pork products to America. The company’s alternative pork strips, grounds, and luncheon products at now available at all 371 Sprouts locations and 200 Whole Foods Market stores. In addition to America, Omnipork has also recently expanded throughout Asia, Australia, and the UK. The alternative pork product is made predominantly from pea protein, soy, rice, and shitake mushrooms, and was originally crafted for the Asian market.

Left: Founder of Hooray Foods Sri Artham

Hooray Foods partners with Imperfect Foods

Hooray Foods, an alternative meat company, shared with The Spoon that it has partnered with Imperfect Foods, an online grocer focused on reducing food waste. Starting September 2nd, Hooray Foods’ bacon will be available for purchase on the grocer’s site as an add-on to shoppers’ weekly subscription boxes. The alternative bacon is made from a base of coconut oil, rice flour, tapioca starch, and can also be found at select Whole Foods and independent grocery retailers throughout the U.S.

In 2020, the plant-based bacon category doubled from 2019, increasing to a value of $267 million. Hooray Foods currently faces competition in the alternative bacon space from Prime Roots and AtLast.

Misha’s raises $3 million for alternative cheese

Misha’s Kind Foods, the California-based alternative dairy company, announced this week that it has raised a $3 million seed round. The round was led by Jay-Z’s Marcy Ventures Partners Fund ll, L.P., Lisa Shamus & Partners, and Chris Paul. This new capital will allow the company to focus on product development, retail expansion, and growing its team. Misha produces non-dairy cheese products made from a blend of almonds and cashews, as well as herbs, vegetables, and spices.

The plant-based cheese category alone has experienced a 70 percent growth in the past two years. Although this category is not as mature and large as alternative dairy, Misha’s faces an abundance of competition from well-funded companies like Miyoko’s Creamery, Nobell, and Grounded Foods.

OmniFoods Plans to Launch Its Plant-Based OmniPork Products in the U.S. This Year

OmniPork, the plant-based meat line from Green Monday subsidiary OmniFoods, will launch in the U.S. later this year, according to an article from Food Navigator. 

OmniFoods launched its OmniPork line in 2018 in Hong Kong, where the company is also headquartered. As its name suggests, the line features various plant-based replacements for pork, which is the most widely consumed meat in the world. As of now, the OmniPork line includes grounds, lunch meats, and strips as well as OmniPork buns and dumplings. 

Products are made from a proprietary blend of pea and soy protein along with shiitake mushroom and rice. 

The OmniPork line debuted on mainland China in 2019. For its U.S. expansion, OmniFoods will maintain its Asian-inspired focus for its products, rather than creating meat analogues of American staples (e.g., bacon). That said, OmniPork products are, in the company’s own words, “a relatively bland flavor,” which ensures a certain amount of versatility in the products.

Speaking to Food Navigator, OmniFoods founder David Yeung, said its ready meals (dumplings, stir fry, dim sum) are also “extremely well received,” and that down the line, the company may work with U.S.-based food manufacturers to develop meals in addition to the protein products. 

OmniFood debuted products in the U.S. at eight different restaurants across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Honolulu. The company used this same strategy — launching in restaurants before expanding across retail outlets — with its U.K. launch earlier this year. 

The U.S. retail launch doesn’t yet have a specific date applied to it, but will happen at some point later in 2021.

Green Monday Brings Its Plant-Based Pork to U.K. Restaurants for the First Time

Plant-based food company Green Monday will expand its global reach beyond Asia starting with its first-ever restaurant partnerships in the U.K. The Hong Kong-based company’s OmniPork product, a plant-based version of minced pork, arrived in the U.K. this week as part of several restaurants’ Veganuary menus, according to an article from Green Queen Media.

Nine restaurants will carry OmniPork on their menus as part of their participation in Veganuary. Green Monday described these restaurant partnerships as the company’s “soft launch” into the U.K. The company will officially launch in both foodservice and retail in the U.K. later this year.

Participating restaurants this month include Plant Hustler in Bournemouth and Eat Chay in Shoreditch, as well as online delivery services Alta Foods, Viet Vegan, and Kay Kay Foods.

OmniPork already enjoys a sizable presence across Asia, including China, Singapore, Macau, and Thailand. Notably, Green Monday struck a covetable partnership with McDonald’s in 2020 to bring OmniPork to the mega-QSR’s restaurants in Hong Kong and Macau. Green Monday also raised $70 million last year, part of which will go towards further expansion of OmniPork’s geographical reach. Green Monday’s expansion comes the same week Discos, one of China’s leading QSR chains, completely swapped out chicken-based eggs for a plant-based alternative on its menu, highlighting the increasing demand from consumers for alternative proteins. By some accounts, demand for alternative protein is expected to increase 200 percent over the next five years in certain parts of Asia.

Over in Europe, the market for plant-based meat and dairy alternatives is expected to reach €7.5 billion (~$9.1 billion USD) by 2025. As in Asia, shifting consumer eating habits are the major force driving this growth.   

The U.S. remains the largest market for alternative protein, though others are catching up fast. This week’s news from Green Monday and the company’s forthcoming expansion to the U.K. and beyond is further proof of that.

Green Monday Launches a Plant-Based Menu Across McDonald’s Hong Kong Locations

Hong Kong-based Green Monday announced today it has struck a longterm partnership with McDonald’s to launch a plant-based menu across all McDonald’s and McCafé locations in Hong Kong and Macau. The menu will incorporate Green Monday subsidiary OmniFood’s alt-pork products into the meals. Green Queen was first to break the news.

The new menu features six dishes developed around OmniPork Luncheon, a plant-based alternative to the processed meat product that’s popular in Asia. Meals include OmniPork Luncheon & Scrambled Egg Burger,  OmniPork Luncheon N’ Egg Twisty Pasta, OmniPork Luncheon Deluxe Breakfast and OmniPork Luncheon Jumbo Breakfast, as well as OmniPork Luncheon & Egg Cheesy Toast and OmniPork Luncheon & Egg Mayo Ciabatta. All items are vegetarian, though not vegan, since meals include egg.

David Yeung, cofounder and CEO of Green Monday, told Green Queen that the partnership is “the most monumental and game-changing breakthrough for the plant-based movement in Asia, and one of the biggest milestones globally.”

Currently, partnerships between McDonald’s and plant-based protein companies are few and far between. The mega-chain struck a partnership with Beyond Meat in Canada last year, though the chain ended that trial in April of this year and has no plans to renew it. In the past, McDonald’s has publicly said it will wait to see if plant-based protein is a longterm trend before aligning itself with any one brand. 

But thanks to the pandemic highlighting the perils of the meat supply chain, demand for and investment in plant-based protein products has grown so much that the sector is less a trend nowadays than it is a mainstay on retail shelves and restaurant menus. With other QSR brands already featuring plant-based items across their menus (see KFC’s Beyond Meat partnership), McDonald’s can hardly wait much longer to make plant-based items available among its own offerings.

Green Monday itself just raised $70 million. The OmniPork Luncheon menu launches tomorrow across more than 400 McDonald’s and McCafé locations combined. 

There is no official word on whether this partnership will expand, though Green Queen points out that Citic Group and the Carlyle Group, which operate the McDonald’s franchise business in Hong Kong, also run the QSR’s franchise business in Mainland China. OmniFoods debuted OmniPork there last year. Clinching the QSR segment market would be an enormous feat for both Green Monday and plant-based protein in general.

OmniPork Parent Green Monday Raises $70M to Expand Its Plant-Based Food Enterprise

Plant-based food company Green Monday Holdings has raised $70 million in new funding led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Swire Pacific, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. The round also includes participation from CPT Capital, Jefferies Group, Sino Group’s NG Family Trust, artist Wang Leehom, and Room to Read founder John Wood. Existing investors, including Lee Kum Kee Health Products Group’s Happiness Capital and individual investorsJames Cameron, Mary McCartney, and Susan Rockefeller, also participated.

The Hong Kong-based Green Monday enterprise has multiple branches. It operates OmniFoods, which makes plant-based meat alternative OmniPork, as well as Green Common, a retailer and restaurant for plant-based foods. The Green Monday Foundation, meanwhile, is a charitable organization that aims to raise awareness about the importance of living more sustainable lifestyles. The enterprise as a whole reaches multiple countries, including Japan, China, the U.S., the U.K., and Thailand. 

OmniFoods debuted OmniPork on mainland China a little less than one year ago. Since then, the company has expanded across that market, landing in both retailers and QSR chains like Taco Bell and Starbucks. 

This new funding round comes at a time when both investment and interest in plant-based meat is up worldwide. In a recent report, investor network FAIRR said that while the U.S. is still the largest market for alternative proteins, China, along with the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, is catching up. 

Not surprisingly, that means Green Monday is not the only company expanding its alt-protein business in that region. Beyond Meat just announced it will build production facilities in China. Starfield, which recently raised $10 million and launched in 20 restaurant chains across China, is another established player to contend with.

Green Monday said this funding round is the largest of its kind to date in Asia. It will use this new capital to expand research and development as well as its retail networks, and boost its production, distribution, and supply chain capabilities. It plans to increase global operations to over 20 markets across Asia, EMEA and North America, as well as open Green Common flagship stores in China and Singapore.

OmniPork Launches in Retailers Throughout China

OmniPork, producers of plant-based pork products in Asia, announced this week that it will be launching in 210 stores across China (h/t Vegconomist). This decision to expand comes after the recent supply disruptions and inflation of pork in China.

Pork is the most consumed meat in both China and worldwide. OmniPork produces plant-based pork-inspired products such as ground meat, luncheon meat, strips, stuffed buns, dumplings, and prepared meals. On top of the recent disruption and price inflation in the pork industry, China experienced a major outbreak of African Swine Flu in 2019 that devastated the world’s largest swine herd. All of these factors are converging to create a void for OmniPork’s plant-based pork products to fill.

COVID-19 has caused major disruptions in supply chains throughout the world. However, companies in the plant-based space have seen an advantage to these disruptions. Data shows that after the peak of panic-buying food in March, plant-based foods continued to outpace total food retail sales. Plant-based producers are not exposed to animal-spread disease risks, like African Swine Flu. Slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants require a more hands-on approach and workers to be closer together for efficiency, thus increasing the risk for the spread of COVID-19. Plant-based facilities have the benefit of being more automated and workers are able to spread out further apart.

This summer, the Chinese fast-food chain, JiXiang Wonton, released an OmniPork’s wonton in 500 of its locations in ShangHai. Within a week, many locations were sold out of the product, and JiXiang Wonton announced it will soon release OmniPork’s wonton in all of its locations throughout China. The rest of OmniPork’s products will soon be released in supermarket chains throughout Hong Kong and mainland China.

Beyond Meat Arrives at Alibaba Stores in China

Beyond Meat continues its expansion in China, this time into the retail sector. The company is bringing its Beyond Burgers to Alibaba’s Heme supermarkets, first in Shanghai, then elsewhere in the country later this year, according to TechCrunch. 

Beyond debuted in China earlier this year with a Starbucks partnership, selling its plant-based meat products in cafes across the country. Availability of Beyond products expanded to the Yum China empire, where they were at Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell for a limited time.

The company’s arrival in Alibaba stores is its first foray into retail in China. Though it makes sense. China has the world’s largest population and is also the world’s largest consumer of meat. The Chinese government has been urging citizens for some time now to cut down their meat consumption, which makes China a lucrative market for plant-based meat products.

This move is also the latest salvo in what has been a busy few months of back-and-forth expansion news for both Beyond and its main plant-based rival, Impossible Foods. Impossible launched a direct-to-consumer sales channel at the beginning of June. Shortly after, Beyond released bulk packaging that narrowed the price gap between its burgers and traditional meat. Beyond also announced plans for its own D2C site, which has yet to launch. Then earlier this week, Impossible announced that its Impossible Sausage is now available to all restaurants in the U.S. 

This latest deal with Alibaba helps bolster Beyond’s foothold in China. Impossible is not yet in Chinese markets, though the company has suggested in the past it plans to eventually launch products there. As demand for plant-based meat offerings has surged since the start of the global pandemic, it’s a safe bet to expect the back-and-forth news from both companies to continue throughout the year.

Omnipork Launches Plant-based Alternatives to “Spam” and Pork Shoulder in Asia

Green Monday, the company behind plant-based Omnipork, announced today that it’s unveiling two new products: a vegan lunch meat similar to Spam and a plant-based pork shoulder.

According to a press release from the company, Omnipork Luncheon Meat will be “the world’s first luncheon meat made entirely from plants.” Both Omnipork Luncheon and Omnipork Strip, a plant-based alternative to pork shoulder, will launch tomorrow at Michelin-starred restaurant Ming Court in Hong Kong, as well as Green Monday’s own line of vegan restaurants called Kind Kitchen. The products will hit retail shelves in Hong Kong in July. Pricing was not disclosed.

Based in Hong Kong, Green Monday launched its first product, Omnipork, almost two years ago. The plant-based ground pork is made from shiitake mushrooms mixed with pea, soy and rice protein, and is meant to appeal to the Asian consumer palate. Thus far, Omnipork is sold in nearly 40,000 retail and foodservice locations in six countries, including mainland China. Less than a month ago, the company announced it would be on menus in Starbucks in China, alongside faux beef giant Beyond Meat.

Photo: Green Monday

Canned, processed meat is quite popular in Asia. It was brought there by soldiers in the Second World War and since has spread to incorporate into local dishes in Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, and more.

Despite its popularity, canned luncheon meat is, well, not the healthiest. A single can contains more than 1,000 calories, nearly 100 grams of fat, and double the daily recommended dose of sodium. “Luncheon meat is a food that everyone in Asia has a love-hate relationship with,” said David Yeung, CEO of Green Monday, in the aforementioned release.

In addition to health motivations, consumers around the world are turning to plant-based alternatives as COVID-19 disrupts slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, leading to higher meat prices. Considering the pandemic came just months after an outbreak of African Swine Fever, which decimated China’s pork population, it’s certainly an opportune time to debut a new alternative pork product. Or two.

Taco Bell in China Debuts Plant-based OmniPork Crunchy Taco for Chinese Palates

Today Taco Bell launched a limited edition taco made with plant-based Omnipork in all Shanghai locations. Called the OmniPork Crunchy Taco, the offering will feature OmniPork’s meat-free ground pork cooked with spicy Yu Xiang sauce and lettuce. The fast-food chain will sell 6,000 of these tacos, priced at RMB 25 ($3.58 USD) each, starting today until they run out.

For those who don’t know, OmniPork is the first product from Green Monday, the Hong Kong-based group of restaurants and shops focused on promoting vegan dining in Asia. Green Monday founder David Yeung developed OmniPork, a ground pork substitute made from plants, specifically to appeal to Asian audiences who eat pork far more than, say, beef or chicken.

OmniPork is already sold in Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau and Thailand. It also made its debut in mainland China last month through online retailer Tmall. When announcing the news, Yeung said that OmniPork would be rolling out at over 180 restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing over the next two months. Clearly at least a few of those spots are Taco Bells.

Taco Bell is the first fast-food venue to sell OmniPork. It may seem ironic that the first QSR partner for a company focused on Asian palates is one that serves Tex-Mex food. However, Chinese consumers have taken to the fast-food chain since it returned to the country after an almost ten-year hiatus. The OmniPork Crunchy Taco is also specifically developed with Chinese flavors and uses plant-based pork instead of beef, as a nod to China’s most popular meat.

The Taco Bell partnership could be just the beginning for OmniPork’s foray into fast food. “We are confident that this special promotional launch is the beginning of a long partnership between the Green Monday group with Taco Bell as well as other brands under the Yum China portfolio,” stated Yeung in a press release.

Considering that the Yum China portfolio also includes KFC, Pizza Hut, and others, if the OmniPork Crunchy Taco has a favorable debut I bet we’ll be seeing OmniPork pop up in a lot more fast-food restaurants in China very soon.

Omnipork to Make Plant-based Pork Debut in Mainland China on Black Friday

Black Friday often means slogging through crowded stores and feasting on Thanksgiving leftover sandwiches.

But this Black Friday will also mark a significant move for Green Common, maker of the plant-based product Omnipork. On November 29, the company will make its mainland China debut through online retailer Tmall during the site’s Black Friday event. Green Common founder David Yeung said over the next two months more than 180 restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing will begin selling Omnipork, according to the South China Morning Post.

Omnipork is a meatless ground pork product developed specifically to appeal palates in Asia, where pork is the most consumed meat. The plant-based pork is currently available online, in Green Common stores and in multiple restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau and Thailand. I got to taste it when I was in Hong Kong earlier this year, and while it wasn’t exactly the same as the real thing, it did a good job of mimicking pork when put in dishes like ramen or dumplings.

The timing is ripe for Omnipork to head to China. With the recent outbreak of the African Swine Flu, China’s pig population is estimated to drop by as much as 50 percent. But Chinese consumers still have an immense appetite for protein.

Green Common isn’t the only meat alternative company to set its sites on China. Just last week Impossible Foods’ CEO Pat Brown did its first product taste in the country at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. There he said that Impossible had developed a pork prototype and was working on scaling it with the intention of selling in China. Beyond Meat has also called out Asia as an area with high market potential for plant-based meat.

Earlier this year Yeung told me that once Omnipork entered China it would double its footprint from 5,000 to 10,000 outlets. It’s still too early to say if Chinese consumers will indeed flock to Omnipork to the degree which he anticipates, but with the prices of pork set to rise over the next few months, the time is certainly good for meat alternatives to enter the Chinese market. And now it looks like Omnipork has secured first-mover advantage.

Future Food: Pigging Out on Omnipork in Hong Kong

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I just got home from a stopover in Hong Kong after the whirlwind of SKS Japan, and boy it was anything but boring.

In between sampling bubble waffles and copious amounts of dim sum, I got to meet with David Yeung, founder of the Green Monday enterprise. Green Monday is an umbrella organization which includes a non-profit educating consumers on the benefits of meat alternatives, a vegan grocery and wholesale operation, a venture arm, and a branded plant-based pork product called Omnipork.

Yeah. David Yeung is busy.

During my visit I also got to put Omnipork to a taste test. I sampled it tucked in a fried gyoza, crumbled on top of a bowl of ramen, and stuffed inside sweet puff pastry dim sum.

Overall, I thought Omnipork worked pretty well as a pork substitute. It doesn’t have the same unctuous fattiness of actual pork, at least partially because it’s lower in saturated fat, but it’s still tasty and the texture hits close to the mark.

Omnipork is essentially flavorless — which is both a good and bad thing. Yeung told me this was very intentional; he wanted to make a product that was endlessly versatile so it could be incorporated into a wide variety of Asian dishes. However, it can also make for a pretty bland bite if not properly seasoned or combined with tasty sauces.

The versatility bit is key. Yeung’s overarching goal is to make a comprehensive platform to cut down on Asia’s consumption of animal products, starting with the continent’s most popular meat: pork. Yeung said that Asian consumers might have a burger every month or so, but they incorporate ground pork into multiple meals daily. He figured that if he wanted to create a plant-based protein that could have a shot at taking a bite out of growing meat consumption in Asia, he had to make a product specifically tailored for that audience.

Crazily enough, he’s the first to do so. When people think about the new wave of fake meat products, their thoughts automatically turn to Silicon Valley. While there’s certainly plenty of innovation there, Asia is actually the area that seems in most need of tasty, cheap plant-based protein: meat consumption there is projected to rise by 78 percent by 2050, and recent outbreaks have made meat prices skyrocket and also triggered consumer demand for a safer alternative.

I left Hong Kong feeling both inspired by Yeung’s progress and daunted by how far he has to go. If he wants to take a bite out of Asian pork consumption, he’ll need to get Omnipork on a lot more plates. Making it into tasty gyozas is certainly a good start.

Photo: Beyond Meat

Beyond Meat skips Japan

Like any alternative-protein nerd, I kept my eyes peeled during my time in Tokyo to see if I came across any plant-based meat, eggs, etc.

No dice. And now it seems that at least one major alt-protein player won’t be entering the Japanese market at all, at least for a while. Last week Reuters reported that Beyond Meat had dropped plans to start selling in Japan, instead opting to double down on the U.S. market.

This is a change in tune from Beyond CEO’s Ethan Brown statement during the company’s first earnings call a few months ago. Then, he outlined Beyond’s aggressive expansion plan, naming Asia as one of the key areas of focus.

That being said, it makes sense why Beyond has to hit the pause button on outward growth and turned their attention back stateside. The company has announced multiple fast-food partnerships over the past few weeks alone, including large rollouts with Dunkin’ and Subway. A product shortage would be very, very bad right now, as Beyond competes with Impossible Foods in a race to snag the most fast-food partners and steels itself for Impossible to enter retail later this year.

No wonder Beyond has turned its attention back to the U.S.

Photo: Aramark.

Cafeteria special: Meatless meat

As I mentioned above, alternative meat companies have been grabbing headlines lately by partnering with large fast-food chains like Burger King, Subway and Dunkin’. But recently, two new alt-meat partnerships have flown relatively under the media radar — and they shouldn’t.

Last week food service management company Sodexo announced it would launch a new product line featuring the Impossible burger at 1,500 locations in the U.S. A few days later, news broke that food and facilities management giant Aramark would begin using Beyond Meat products to build out its plant-based meat portfolio.

Partnerships like these may not get as much press as fast-food launches, but teaming up with major food and facilities management companies is an important strategic move for companies like Impossible and Beyond.

Most obviously, it’s an opportunity for plant-based meat companies to massively expand their footprint and get their products on even more plates, selling to a captive audience at sports venues, concert halls, and cafeteria. Since both providers also serve a lot of university cafeterias, also a way for them to train younger generations of consumers to expect alternative proteins wherever they dine.

Beyond and Impossible may be just starting to ramp up foodservice expansion, but they’re not the first to do so. Plant-based chicken nugget company Rebellyous has been targeting large clients like cafeterias from the start (they just got into the Microsoft canteen).

If meat alternatives want to give real meat a serious run for its money, they’ll need to capture audience not just in restaurants and grocery stores, but also during their office lunch or ball game dinner. These partnerships are a great start.

Photo: Integriculture

Protein ’round the web

  • An Australian startup is growing kangaroo meat in a lab (via the Wall Street Journal). They currently estimate it would cost about $600 Australian dollars (~$400 USD) to produce one kilogram.
  • Edible insect company Chapul is no longer making protein bars. Instead, they’ll focus on growing bugs to use as fish and poultry feed (h/t Foodnavigator).
  • At SKS Japan we spoke with Integriculture’s founder about his plan to sell cell-based foie gras in restaurants by 2021.

That’s it from me this week. I’m off to grab another coffee to keep my jet lag at bay.

Eat well,
Catherine

A Taste of Omnipork, The First Meat Alternative Developed Specifically for Asia

Last week I visited Kind Kitchen in Hong Kong and got to taste a special type of pork gyoza that was juicy, tender, and delicious — and also happened to be made entirely of plants.

Kind Kitchen is part of Green Common, a group of plant-based retail shops and restaurants. In addition to the physical outlets in Hong Kong, Green Common also has a wholesale operation which distributes vegan products to thousands of grocery stores and restaurants throughout Asia. Its products are also available for consumers to purchase online.

Even as the number of flexitarians in Asia begins to rise and the Chinese government calls for a cut in meat consumption, vegan products can be hard to come by in Hong Kong. Asia is the world’s largest consumer of pork, and right now, there aren’t any good alternatives on the market — especially those that would appeal to the dietary preferences of an Asian audience.

According to David Yeung, founder of Green Common and its parent company Green Monday, it can be hard for Western people to understand Asia’s relationship with pork. “Pork is a foundation ingredient in everyday cooking,” Yeung told me over milk tea (made with Oatly) at Kind Kitchen. “Almost like salt and pepper.”

To address that shortage of pork alternatives while still respecting the dish’s cultural significance, Yeung launched Omnipork under his Right Treat brand last year in Hong Kong. The minced “pork” product is made of soy, pea protein, shiitake mushrooms, and rice. It has no cholesterol and higher amounts of calcium and iron than pork, but slightly less protein.

Omnipork display at Kind Kitchen in Hong Kong. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Yeung decided to develop Omnipork with a relatively neutral flavor to optimize versatility, so it can be used to make everything from dumplings to meat sauce.

In addition to Hong Kong, Omnipork is also sold at roughly 1,000 suppliers in Macau, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. Nearly two-thirds of its distribution points are restaurants, ranging in fanciness from hawker stalls in Singapore to 3 Michelin star dining establishments.

Yeung has aggressive expansion plans in mind: He told me that by the end of the year he expects to sell Omnipork at close to 5,000 outlets. The number will rise to roughly 10,000 outlets after their anticipated entrance into the Chinese market over the next few months. By the beginning of 2020, he hopes Omnipork will be available in up to 15 countries. His team is also developing new Omnipork products, such as dumplings and ready-to-eat meals.

A 230 gram pack sells for around $40 HKD ($5 USD) at Green Common. According to Yeung, that puts it on par with regular pork. In fact in some cases it’s a lot cheaper, since the African Swine Virus has recently depleted the Chinese pig population and made pork prices skyrocket in Asia.

But no matter how cost competitive it is, people won’t buy meat alternatives unless they taste good. After my taste test experience, I think that Omnipork measures up. Sure, its texture is slightly spongier than pork, and it has a slight pea protein aftertaste. But while it doesn’t have a ton of flavor on its own, it meshes super well into a variety of dishes, from ramen to dumplings.

Ramen and gyozas made with Omnipork from Kind Kitchen. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Realizing the unmet demand for plant-based foods, Western companies are also beginning to target Asia as an emerging market for plant-based products. JUST sells its animal-free egg scramble in Singapore, Hong Kong, and China, and Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are also available in several Asian countries. Earlier this week Smithfield, the world’s largest pork producer (and interestingly owned by a Hong Kong-based company), announced the launch of its new line of plant-based protein, though hasn’t specified if it will sell its new products in Asia.

Hong Kong was actually the first area to carry Beyond Meat outside the U.S. — at Green Common. That isn’t exactly surprising, since Yeung was an early investor in Beyond through his Green Monday Ventures platform (yes, another branch of his plant-based empire).

There are also a few players beginning to make meat alternatives in Asia, mostly in the cell-based meat space. In Singapore Shiok Meats is developing cultured shrimp, and back in Hong Kong Avant Meats is developing lab-grown fish swim bladders.

When I asked Yeung if he was planning on selling Omnipork in Europe or the U.S., he seemed hesitant. He said that they were hoping to expand outside of Asia over the next year but will continue to keep their focus on that part of the world. “It’s a white space, a complete vacuum,” he said, indicating how few plant-based products are developed specifically for Asian palates and dining patterns.

The world’s meat consumption is projected to rise. Pair that with a growing population, climate change, and food safety issues, and Asia is primed to be a leading market for meat alternatives. “We built a platform a platform for the entire future food ecosystem,” Yeung said. “Now we want to catalyze it.”