Ready to hear some insider insights on the plant-based foods industry from FMCG, e-commerce and vegan leaders?
Here are critical takeaways and points from the panel discussion moderated by me at PBFIA’s India Plant-Based Foods Show at AAHAR 2025.
Panel details:
Topic: Exploring market dynamics of the plant-based food industry
Moderator: Jinal Shah, The Vegan Marketer
Panellists:
Ashu Phakey , ITC Limited
Aravind Iyer , bigbasket
Charu Mohan , Nestlé
Prerna Bajaj , Vezlay Foods Private Limited
Rohit Bhagat , Life Health Foods
Simarjeet Singh , MisterVeg
Key points and highlights unpacked by the panel are:
🌿 For vegan brands, particularly Life Health Foods ‘ So Good, e-commerce has been the biggest source of discovery.
🌿Leaders such as bigbasket are open to the players from the plant-based sector
🌿 E-commerce is primarily a search platform, less of a discovery platform. So vegan food brands need to generate necessary pull to get people to actively search for them.
🌿 Big Basket does not charge listing fees but does urge newer brands to chip in to help discovery
🌿For HoReCa and B2B, both versatility and affordability of the vegan product influences purchase decision
🌿 Nestlé sends a culinary team to each potential HoReCa client to showcase the versatility, functionality and possibilities of their plant-based mince and patties. Such live demo becomes very persuasive!
🌿 Vegan dairy has been doing better than vegan foods because it follows consumer behaviour and their way of shopping. Vegan dairy, particularly So Good, goes where the consumer goes be it cafés, restaurants, hotels, e-commerce, quick-commerce, etc
🌿 FMCG brands such as ITC Limited are waiting for the inflection point where the pricing starts making sense for both the consumers and the brand
Check out the entire 40 minute deep dive here https://lnkd.in/dzVd_E3Z
Important timestamps related to industry insights:
- 14.35 Topic introduction by host
- 15.40 Introduction of the moderator (Jinal Shah, The Vegan Marketer)
- 16.13 Introduction of 6 panellists
- 18.57 Panel discussion introduction, including mind boggling statistics about India’s consumer base and consumer spending
Questions
- 20.44 ITC has shifted focus away from plant-based products. Is this a temporary pause? Are there plans to re-enter with an optimized portfolio? How else is ITC meeting this shift in consumer expectations towards sustainable, purpose driven, better-for-you products?
- 25.40 Nestle Professional Singapore is bullish on the plant-based sector, particularly because of its climate credentials. How does plant-based fit into Nestle India’s sustainability goals?
- 28.55 Big Basket is from the Tata Group, a group known for its values, philanthropy, CSR, eco-consciousness etc. Tata group is also present in the plant protein category. So you of course understand the seriousness of this sector. Do you at Big Basket have any internal targets for this plant-based category?
- 30.48 Being one of the largest e-comm players in India, what are Big Basket’s plans for category development of plant-based F&B? How likely are we to see lowering of entry barriers such as listing fees on the platform?
- 33.00 Does Big Basket have plans to add curated collections or add separate vegan category to navigation menu?
- 34.38 (Vezlay, So Good, MisterVeg) Do you think our plant-based sector is facing a demand problem or is it a positioning problem? What if we repositioned ourselves as sustainable or better-for-you instead of as “alternatives”? Would that help?
- 44.10 (So Good) Plant-based dairy is growing at 12-14% CAGR while plant-based meat is growing at 8%-10% CAGR. What do you think is helping plant-based milk do better than other plant based foods that’s helping its market penetration?
- 47.04 What type of support does Nestle provide to restaurant owners and HoReCa to boost plant-based adoption?
- 49.53 What has a higher influence on B2B purchases: plant-based product’s versatility or its affordability?
- 51.07 There is a growing demand for plant based food in the B2B segment. Take Sodexo’s commitment to offer 33% plant-based in their menu by year end or Marriott’s, Accor’s, Radisson’s commitments of upto 50% plant-based in menus. Does ITC plan to tap into this massive B2B demand for plant based foods?
Conclusion
- 54.06 In one sentence each, name one plant-based food innovation you are excited to see and that you’ve heard of
- 57.07 Audience question: How can masses access plant-based products from an affordability pov?
- 58.44 Speaker felicitation and mementos
- 1.02.10 The end of the panel
Glimpses from the event
ps: Not only were the discussions dwell worthy, but AAHAR also had creative product and marketing ideas worth noting. Check out some of my favorites here.
