In Finland, there has been a significant increase in sales of plant-based foods for some time now, mainly due to the population’s growing demand for healthier alternatives. Over the Christmas and holiday season, manufacturers and traders in the country were hardly able to meet the high demand for plant-based meat alternatives.
According to local Finnish food chains and vegan meat producers, sales of vegan meat, especially vegan ham, boomed in Finland during the Christmas season. Last year, the supermarket chain Prisma – a brand of the cooperative S Group – put vegan Christmas ham on the shelves for the first time. “We got a domestic brand in this Christmas season, so we wanted to make sure it was visible and marketed as a viable option for all consumers,” Juha Nieminen, S Group product manager, told media agency Yle Uutiset. “We can certainly consider it a breakthrough, as sales of these products are booming across the country.”
In recent years, an increasing number of domestic manufacturers have introduced various varieties of plant-based ham to the market, resulting in a wider range of vegan and vegetarian options for consumers. Prisma supermarkets were thus able to offer seitan-based Christmas ham substitutes for the first time last year.
