Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "14th Five-Year Plan" for Bioeconomic Development, which proposed to develop synthetic biology technology, explore and develop novel foods such as "artificial protein", realize the iterative upgrading of the food industry, and reduce the pressure on environmental resources brought by traditional breeding industry.

According to statistics, there are dozens of listed companies involved in the field of "artificial meat", and many companies have already deployed it. Industry insiders said that Chinese "artificial meat" had broad market development prospect, but there were still some development bottlenecks, such as processing technology, taste and consumer concepts. In addition, production costs remain high.

Develop synthetic biology technology

In terms of promoting the development of the bio-agricultural industry, the Plan proposes to orderly develop biological breeding technologies such as genome-wide selection, systems biology, synthetic biology and artificial intelligence, make efforts to improve the ability such as breeding of superior varieties, production and processing and promotion and application, and accelerate the establishment of a commercial breeding innovation system. Actively promote high-quality corn and soybean grain crops with high resistance, and carry out research and scientific breeding of livestock such as high-quality live pigs, white-feathered broilers and dairy cows and aquatic products.

Industry insiders said that Chinese "artificial meat" market is in the early stage of development, but benefiting from the demographic dividend brought by the huge domestic population base, the market has great potential for development.

According to statistics from Chuancai Securities, the market size of global plant-based "artificial meat" in 2019 was about US$12.1 billion, and it is expected to grow at a compound growth rate of 15% annually, reaching US$27.9 billion by 2025. Chinese plant meat market is still in its infancy, with a market size of 7 billion Yuan in 2019 and a year-on-year increase of 22.6%. It is expected that by 2023, the market size of Chinese "artificial meat" will reach US$13 billion, and the plant meat market will account for a half of the global market.

Regulatory system and industry standards to be improved

A researcher from the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce said that the release of the Plan will make the cooperation of all links in the industrial chain more effective and promote the stable development of the industry. At the same time, the Plan will guide technology to continuously iterative upgrading to provide support for Chinese food safety, and to create a favorable environment and relatively stable development expectations.

The "artificial meat" industry not only needs technical support, but also needs to improve a series of supporting measures, including creativity, sales, package and image design. Listed companies are relatively strong and have a fixed customer base, and their participation creates more favorable conditions for the formation of industrial clusters and the coordinated development of all links in the industrial chain.

Industry insiders said that if plant meat wants to be closer to the taste of traditional meat, the addition amount of fat and protein needs to be increased. At the same time, there are many ways of presenting meat, such as fat and thin, and the taste of different parts is different hugely. "Artificial meat" is not only completely different from ordinary meat in the production process, but also involves issues such as pigments and flavorings. If there is no perfect market supervision mechanism, its food safety risk may be greater than that of traditional meat products. Therefore, the future development of the "artificial meat" industry still needs further observation.

At present, the taste and quality of "artificial meat" products cannot be directly compared with those of natural meat, and consumers still need a process to accept artificial protein. In addition, the laws, regulations and standard systems of the "artificial meat" industry are still relatively lacking, such as food safety and the impacts on people's nutrition and health in the future, which all require more clear certification. The development of the "artificial meat" market urgently requires the industry standards and management systems.

Source: China Economy

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