Food Industry Executive/Following a record year of growth in 2020 (+28%), plant-based dollar sales were up 6.2% in 2021, outpacing the growth of total food sales (+1.9%). Over the past three years, plant-based sales have increased by 54%.
Leading the way for plant-based growth, plant-based milk brought in $2.6 billion in sales in 2021, up $105 million (a 4% increase) from 2020. For comparison, a drop in animal-based milk sales contributed to a loss of $264 million (-2%) for the overall milk category last year. Plant-based milk sales have grown 33% over the past three years, and the category now accounts for 16% of all retail milk dollar sales in conventional channels.
Sales of other plant-based dairy products reached $2.1 billion in 2021, with most of the growth in plant-based creamers (+33%). Plant-based egg sales only reached $39 million last year, but this was a 42% increase from 2020. The category’s three-year growth was a remarkable +1,000%. Meanwhile, conventional egg dollar sales dropped by 4% last year.
While dollar sales of plant-based meat remained steady at $1.4 billion in 2021, three-year growth for the category came in at +74%. And three-year unit sales growth for plant-based meat (+51%) far surpassed that of conventional meat (+9%). However, despite its strong growth, plant-based meat still only makes up a small fraction of total meat sales — last year, the category’s share of retail packaged meat dollar sales was 2.7% and its share of the total meat category was 1.4%.
