AVK, one of the largest confectionery companies in Ukraine, has rolled out production of vegan ‘meat.’
AVK started selling vegan patties made of soy protein, wheat gluten and other ingredients. The company will sell the product under brand name Dreameat.
The production and sale of plant-based meat substitutes seem to be gaining momentum in Ukraine. Dreameat will now compete with Eat Me At and Beyond Meat, two companies that entered Ukraine over the last two years.
For now, AVK’s vegan patties are only available online, but the company expects to find retailers to distribute their products soon.
A 240-gram pack costs Hr 92, which is about $3, and consists of two patties of the vegan mince.
Dreameat’s U.S. rival Beyond Meat, which entered Ukraine in November 2019, offers two patties for Hr 250-300, or about $9-11. Eat Me At, a Ukrainian company founded in September 2020, sells 350 grams of its plant-based ground ‘meat’ for Hr 160, or $6.
Volodymyr Avramenko, founder and CEO of AVK, claims that his product is “the first plant-based meat on the market without methyl cellulose,” a thickening agent.
According to the World Health Organization, methyl cellulose can provoke laxative effects at high intakes but doesn’t pose any health risks.
According to Avramenko, now AVK is no longer just a confectionery company.
Plant-based meat patties produced by AVK confectionery company under brand name Dreameat. Volodymyr Avramenko, founder and CEO of AVK, says that, apart from patties, the company will be producing and selling minced plant-based meat, sausages and other products, as well. (avksweets.com)
AVK decided to start production of vegan products because, in Ukraine, “there are not so many quality offers of substitutes for products of animal origin yet,” Avramenko told the Kyiv Post in a message through AVK’s spokesperson Natalia Yuschenko.
Apart from 240-gram patty packs, the company will be producing and selling minced plant-based meat, sausages and other products.
The plant-based food market is growing globally. Meticulous Research, a market research and consulting firm, predicts that the plant-based food market will reach $74 billion by 2027. Ukraine is following the trend of glowing global demand.
Nearly 2 million Ukrainians were vegetarians in 2017, according to a survey conducted by the community organization Open Cages Ukraine and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. Ceuta Group, a marketing company, claims that interest in veganism in Ukraine increased by 323% from 2014 to 2019.
When Beyond Meat entered the Ukrainian market, the demand for artificial meat among locals was already high, Stanislav Lutskovych, co-founder of West Mills, the company that officially distributes Beyond Meat in Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post.
