SOUTH AFRICA – Brazilian meat alternative brand, Future Farm, has brought its cutting-edge plant-based meat products to South Africa, launching a wide array of offerings in Checkers stores across the country.

Introducing the brand’s Future Burger, Future Sausage, Future Meatballs and Future Mince, are designed to tempt meat-lovers into eating plant-based meals occasionally, and to satisfy vegetarians and vegans with the eco-friendly, GMO-free, gluten-free and Halaal range made using all-natural ingredients.

“By replicating the same satisfaction, we get from eating meat by using plants, we have revolutionised food in a way that is good for the people, the planet, and your plate.

“We aim to make Future Farm a truly global brand and improve the world through nutrition,” Pedro Zuim, marketing director for Future Farm, says.

Launched in 2019 as Fazenda Futuro by food-tech entrepreneurs Marcos Leta and Alfredo Strechinsky, the young company started by convincing its native Brazil, the third biggest meat-eating nation in the world, to adopt meatless burgers as a lifestyle choice.

Plant-based meat alternatives were relatively unknown in the country at the time.

Only three months after launching the company attracted US$8,5m in investment through the venture capital fund Monashee Capital Inc. to expand its operations, reports Bizcommunity.

During its first 18 months of operation, it sold 9 million burgers (23% of all burger sales in the country’s biggest retailer) and was ready to take the winning recipe to the world.

Now Brazil’s first plant-based meat startup has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the industry, and the most valuable food-tech startup in Latin America.

Future Farm products are available in 18 countries around the world – including the UAE, UK, Germany, and Netherlands, intending to double this number by the end of 2021.

Within six months of arrival on the UAE market in 2020, Future Farm products had outperformed existing competitors taking a substantial market share in the region.

The company has since consolidated its reputation as one of the few global giants in the plant-based food industry.

Future Farm’s secret is using cutting edge food tech to create the best meatless meat in the market and only uses natural plant ingredients – including chickpea, pea and soy protein, with beetroot as colouring.

The company markets its products as tasty, feeling and looking like meat, in a bid to woo meat-eaters to a more flexitarian lifestyle by creating a product that is as juicy, tasty and satisfying as their favourite burgers, and to reduce the global demand for animal meat.

In the South African market, Future Farms joins the likes of Nestle who recently introduced its plant-based range ‘Harvest Gourmet’ and LIVEKINDLY Collective Africa brands from the joint venture formed between RCL Foods and LIVEKINDLY Collective.

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