Food Service

Latin America Sees a 21.6% Increase in Vegan-Friendly Restaurants

Veganuary has partnered with vegan food discovery platform HappyCow to launch its third-ever rankings of the Latin American countries and cities with the most vegan restaurant options.

The study reveals that there are now over 10,000 vegan, vegetarian, and vegan-friendly restaurants in Latin America, up by more than 1,700 compared to 2023. This represents an increase of 21.6%.

Rankings by country

Brazil takes the top spot in the country rankings with 2,953 vegan-friendly restaurants. Mexico has only 33 fewer, and also has the highest number of fully vegan restaurants.

Colombia is in third place, followed by Chile. The latter has seen a huge 27.7% increase in vegan-friendly restaurants, with almost 200 new options added last year. Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Paraguay make up the remainder of the top ten.

© Melt Pizzas

“The results are very positive, not only because of the country’s good position in the ranking, but because they show that there is a large – and often unknown – range of possibilities for eating vegan outside the home in Latin America,” said Mauricio Serrano, director of Veganuary Latin America. “Ideal for the millions of people who will surely join Veganuary’s Vegan January.”

Rankings by city

Sao Paulo was found to be the most vegan-friendly city, followed by Mexico City. The latter also entered HappyCow’s rankings of the world’s top ten vegan cities for the first time last year, taking eighth place.

Santiago has the third-greatest number of vegan-friendly restaurants, while Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro have risen to fourth and fifth place respectively. Bogotá has been displaced to sixth place, while the seventh and eighth spots have been taken by Lima and Brasilia. Finally, Medellín has risen to ninth place and Tulum enters the rankings for the first time in the tenth position.

“2023 to 2024 has been a very difficult period for vegan restaurants around the world,” said HappyCow founder Eric Brent. “Economic factors have caused the number of vegan businesses to decline in most major cities around the world. Mexico City is an exception that has continued to see some growth. Globally, trends in vegan options and plant-based products continue on an impressive upward trajectory.”

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