Page 12 - Food&Drink Jan-Feb 2022 magazine

Impossibly ambitious
With the arrival of Impossible Foods in Australia, Kim Berry
caught up with senior vice president International Nick Halla about launching in Australia and where the plant-based market is headed.
PLANT-BASED PROTEIN
12 | Food&Drink business | January-February 2022 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au
AS Impossible Foods was launching in Australia and New Zealand through the Grill’d burger chain and Sydney’s Butter outlets last November, it was also securing $500 million in its latest funding round.
Building on the $200 million it raised in August 2020 and $500 million in March 2020, the vegan meat company has raised close to $2 billion since is launch in 2011. It is now valued at around $7 billion.
Its arrival in Australia and New Zealand increases its market to seven countries with no sign of slowing.
In October 2020, CEO and founder Pat Brown said the company was going to double its R&D department and hire more than 100 scientists within the next 12 months. The company backed it up in 2021, with the launch of its sausage to the retail market, chicken nuggets, pork (into food service), and meatballs.
QWhat made the Australian market an attractive proposition?
Our long-term mission is to be available in all markets, globally. That means scaling to produce nearly 500 billion kilograms of meat, and our goal is to do that by 2035. We obviously need to be in every market with that ambition.
Australia is one of the highest meat-consuming countries in the world by per capita meat consumption, alongside the US and Argentina. The country is known for its meat-centric culinary scene and cultural pastimes centred around meaty dishes – like barbecues and roasts. This means the market presents an enormous opportunity for us to reach a high concentration of our target consumer: the meat eater.
Additionally, our unique approach to transforming the global food system by offering compelling plant-based products has the potential to be a powerful part of Australia’s ambitious goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The production of animals for use in food is responsible for up to 17 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions globally and our