Investment platform currency.com has published a report from an investor’s perspective, saying that cultured meat is a significant market opportunity. The global cultured meat market is predicted to be worth $15.5m by 2021 and $20m by 2027.
Cultured meat includes beef, pork, chicken and seafood and also in recent times the colossal $113.08bn dog and cat food market too. Researchers estimate that 35 per cent of all meat will be cultured by 2040.
In the short term most companies are venture-backed, privately owned and out of reach for everyday investors. It is possible, however, that several, especially those based in the US, could IPO at some point in the future following the success of Beyond Meat which took this route in May 2019.
Existing companies could acquire some of the most innovative startups and build businesses around them; “There would be no shortage of potential suitors from existing food giants through to start-ups such as Beyond and its key US rival Impossible Foods,” states the article.
“Interestingly almost all the giant tech start-ups have investments in the cultured-meat industry. So it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Amazon or even Google could end up as a market leader in this space, providing they can get the acquisitions past regulators.”
Cultured meat has the potential, according to currency.com, to decimate the beef industry which globally is worth $945.7bn – the farming industry is fighting back on two fronts. First, it is calling into question the quality and safety of cultured meat. And secondly, it is attempting to ensure that the new product is not labelled as meat.
“The next few years will be pivotal for the cultured meat market[…] It is clearly an area on which investors need to keep a very close eye.”
