New Alternative Protein Asia offers B2B platform for industry

FHA-Food & Beverage, happening from 5-8 September 2022 at Singapore EXPO & MAX Atria, announced the launch of a brand new 1,300sqm feature area – Alternative Protein Asia, to satisfy the region’s fast-rising demand for sources of protein and offer a B2B platform for leading manufacturers, emerging talent, investors and thought-leaders to meet.

Rising demand for food in Asia

The alternative protein market is estimated to be worth $27.05 billion by 2027, and it is likely that Asia will determine the global protein growth for decades to come. Asia’s population of more than 4.7 billion makes up approximately 60 per cent of the world’s population of 7.9 billion. This, coupled with rising incomes of a growing affluent middle class who are spending more on food purchases, are the primary factors for fuelling the rise in meat consumption and food production. The result of this rapidly increasing affluent consumption of meat in Asia also leads to a higher rate of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and obesity and as such, health is becoming a concerning issue in Asia.

Furthermore, countries enacting food export restrictions on certain items such as chicken and wheat as a precautionary measure over concerns of domestic food security has caused disruption in food supply chains and prices, especially for nations such as Singapore which is heavily reliant on food imports.

This underscores the importance of a bigger focus on research into urban food production and alternative food sources to boost food security. Recognising this, Alternative Protein Asia is launched as part of FHA-Food & Beverage’s commitment to supporting the collective effort by governments and the food industry to solve Asia’s food challenges, with solutions that can relieve the rising pressures levied on the already fragile food ecosystem and cater to consumers’ growing preference for healthier, safer, more sustainable food.

Satisfying Asia’s demand for protein-rich products

Occupying over 1,300sqm of Hall 1 at FHA-Food & Beverage, Alternative Protein Asia is a new feature area for the showcase of tasty new products through culinary demonstrations, innovative start-ups, novel companies that seek to break into the Asian markets. Exhibiting companies include Impossible Foods, Tindle, First Pride, Harvest Gourmet, Oatside, Big Idea Ventures, Finnebrogue, GrowthWell, Shiok Meats and others.

Besides the large exhibition area, Alternative Protein Asia will also feature an exciting four-day conference program highlighting the now and next for the industry with over 30 thought leaders and experts from Good Food Institute (GFI), Nestle, Tyson Foods, Accor, AgFunder VC, Global Data, Aleph Farms, Euromonitor, NTUC Fairprice, SaladStop!, Singapore Management University (SMU), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), Innovate360, The Trendlines Group, Green Rebel Foods and many more.

The inaugural Big Idea Food Competition (BIFC) organised by Big Idea Ventures will also be hosted at Alternative Protein Asia. The competition will shine a spotlight on the best entrepreneurs in this exciting space in Asia with the winner clinching an investment prize of US$200,000 at the finals. BIFC seeks to create new entrepreneurial ecosystems while inspiring the next generation of food start-ups. In a world where achieving food security has become more challenging globally, features such as Alternative Protein Asia and BIFC aim to discover and support the next generation of food entrepreneurs and encourage new innovations addressing our changing food systems.

Budding food entrepreneurs participating in BIFC will enter a pitch and cooking style competition to determine the top start-up from each participating country. The regional winners will travel to Singapore to compete at FHA-Food & Beverage for a chance to clinch the grand investment prize.

“Nothing touches and affects us more deeply than challenges to our food sources and food supply chains. The new Alternative Protein Asia launching at FHA-Food & Beverage will help plug the gap in the huge growth in demand for greater investment and innovation in the alternative protein sector, and represents a step taken by industry, for industry, towards ensuring a healthy and sustainable system and environment in future,” said Ms Janice Lee, Event Director, Hospitality, Food & Beverage - Hong Kong & Singapore, Informa Markets.

"We are incredibly excited to be pioneering the first competition dedicated to plant-based innovation in Asia. With the Big Idea Ventures Food Competition we will not only discover great new alternative protein talents and companies but we will also bring more awareness than ever to the space. We encourage all plant-based and fermentation-based startups across Asia to apply and join us in this incredible journey!” said Andrew D Ive, Big Idea Ventures Founder and General Managing Partner.

Sneak Preview of Alternative Protein Asia at FHA Match

Held on 5 July virtually, FHA Match is a prelude to the FHA-Food & Beverage tradeshow, offering industry a complimentary chance to forge connections ahead of the physical event, arrange online and offline meetings, and access content sessions featuring thought leadership from movers and shakers of the F&B industry in Asia and globally. Alternative Protein Asia will be covered across four sessions, with experts in the plant-protein space to share strategies for the promotion of new plant protein products to consumers, discuss new innovations in dairy alternatives and key drivers of success of this segment, and more.

Sessions and speakers highlight:

·        ‘Driving Diets with Dollars: Promoting New Protein Products to Consumers’ – James Caffyn, Partner, Lever VC; Michal Klar, Founding Partner, Better Bites VC; Sonalie Figueiras, Founder, Green Queen Media; Avinash Desamanagalam, Research Manager, Mordor Intelligence

·        ‘What’s New in Plant-Based Dairy and the Future of Animal-Free?’ – Monique Naval, Senior Research Analyst, Euromonitor International