plantrecote raw version ME-AT

Plantrecote raw version © ME-AT

Agriculture / Agribusiness

Vion Food Group Sells Slaughterhouses, Pre-Packing Meat Facility, and Ham Brand in Germany to Address Market Challenges

The Netherlands-based Vion Food Group, a global player in the meat and plant-based alternatives industry, has announced downsizing measures for its German portfolio in 2024.  As part of these changes, Vion has agreed to sell key facilities, including its beef slaughterhouse and pre-packing facility in Altenburg, as well as the ham specialist Ahlener Fleischhandel, to Tönnies Group. Uhlen GmbH will also acquire the company’s pig slaughterhouse in Perleberg. In addition, Vion will close its Emstek pig facility by the end of March 2024 after waiting to receive acceptable offers from potential buyers. As reported by the firm, the broader European meat industry, with Germany at its core, faces intense global competition from the USA, South America, and China. These challenges have been further exacerbated by the outbreak …

more

Thea Smit, ME-AT

Thea Smit, Director New Product Development, Vion

Interviews

ME-AT: “In Five Years’ Time, Plant-Based Products Will Be Cheaper and Even Better Tasting Than Real Meat”

Vion Food Group is an international producer of meat, meat products, and plant-based alternatives with production locations in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium. Vion says that we need to move our diets towards more plant-based protein sources, and in response, the company launched ME-AT (pronounce as meat), a white label that designs and develops 100% plant-based meat alternatives that it says offer the appearance, feel, and taste of animal meat. Important to note, from a vegan publication, is that Vion’s slaughterhouse and meat processing plant in Leeuwarden became a vegan meat factory upon the launch of ME-AT. We spoke with Thea Smit, Director New Product Development at Vion Food Group, and Willem Cranenbroek, General Manager of ME-AT.   You launched your plant-based white-label ME-AT three …

more

Vegan carpaccio - Vion Food Group

Vegan carpaccio ©Vion Food Group

Meat- and Fish Alternatives

Meat Giant Vion Food Group Introduces Vegan Beef Carpaccio as it Continues to Capitalise on Plant-Based

Vion Food Group, one of the largest meat producers in Europe, launched various plant-based products including a ‘beef’ carpaccio at the recent PLMA trade fair, as it continues to respond to the rise of plant-based around the world. Vion was created through a merger of meat companies Dumeco, Hendrix Meat Group, Moksel, and NFZ in 2003. Vion’s greenhouse gas emissions were equivalent to 7.5% of the Netherlands’ total emissions in 2021, according to a study carried out by New York University. The company supplies pork, beef and meat products to over 100 million consumers every day. Vion and plant-based: a history As we reported back in 2019, Vion’s then CEO CEO Ronald Lotgerink said the company was considering entering the meat alternatives market. “We are …

more

ME AT

Willem Cranenbroek, ©ME-AT

Interviews

ME-AT: “Vion Invested Multiple Millions to Change This Plant From a Beef Slaughterhouse to a Brand New Plant-Based Factory”

As we reported back in April of 2019, Dutch meat giant Vion‘s CEO Ronald Lotgerink said the company was considering entering the meat alternatives market. In the following October, Vion announced that it was launching an alt-meat line called ME-AT, and that its slaughterhouse and meat processing plant in Leeuwarden would become a vegan meat factory

more