January is often seen as a time for restraint, with many cutting down after the excesses of the Christmas season. It’s a period that includes dry January and Veganuary – both ways for consumers to experiment with giving things up.
Now the period is over, we have an opportunity to take stock. How many people participated in Veganuary, and what does this result say about wider consumer trends?
Veganuary is still growing
The vegan food market is growing. According to Grand View Research, as of 2022 it was worth $16.55bn, and expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.7%.
Furthermore, more consumers are participating in Veganuary compared with last year, according to data from the official campaign. In fact, it estimates that roughly 25.8 million people participated worldwide, up from 25m the previous year.
This figure, explains Toni Vernelli, international head of policy and communications at the campaign, was reached by combining YouGov and Wakefield Research surveys with population estimates of the countries in which they were carried out.
Three new countries – Malaysia, Canada and Peru – were added to the scope of the campaign, contributing to this increase.
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In particular, the vegan trend is showing strong growth in Germany.
“The plant-based movement in Germany is going from strength to strength,” says Vernelli.
Other, nearby countries, such as Austria and Switzerland, are also increasingly becoming engaged in Veganuary.
However, in the UK, the picture is more mixed.
“It’s still strong, but it’s probably plateauing,” says Vernelli.
Veganism and the health trend
In recent months, we’ve seen an increasing demand for health in food and beverage, whether that be through functional or fortified foods, or though a return to natural ingredients (and a backlash against ultra-processed foods, also known as UPFs).
Health is a key driver for Veganuary. Consumers are increasingly opting for whole foods, such as tofu and tempeh.
Both of these foods are seeing huge sales increases year-on-year, explains Vernelli.
Criticism against the ultra-processing methods used in plant-based food production have also had an impact on consumer choices, although in the long-run, Vernelli believes that this could be a positive.
“In many ways it’s been good for plant-based food manufacturers because it has forced them to re-examine their products. I know many of them have been reformulating and really focusing on trying to make them as clean as possible.”
Also read → What did we predict as the drivers of Veganuary?
Concerns about UPFs have also stimulated a rise in scratch cooking, with more consumers cooking using ingredients like lentils, chickpeas, legumes, and kidney beans. Such ingredients are not only very healthy, Vernelli points out, but also inexpensive, meaning that consumers can save money in the process.
In conclusion, the UPF backlash has “not necessarily put people off a plant-based diet. It’s really just reformulated what they’re eating.”
Is the divide between ‘vegan’ and ‘meat eater’ still clear?
People’s motivations for turning to vegan products have shifted since last year.
The most significant shift, Vernelli explains, is the way people diet.
“People are much more interested in dietary change on their own agenda,” she explains. People do not necessarily go completely vegan, but incorporate more vegan products into their diet at their own pace.
“Too many people think, ‘I tried it. I did it for two weeks, and then I ate something that wasn’t vegan, so I gave up.‘”
It’s better, she suggests, that people continue to try even if they don’t succeed 100% of the time. She urges people not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Indeed, the line between ‘vegan’ and ‘meat eater’ is less clear than it used to be. This has meant that, in some cases, brands have chosen to move beyond the ‘veganuary’ idea.
Better Nature, for example, wrote recently in The Grocer that it feels the ‘conversation is changing’ around veganism. While complimentary of the campaign and idea itself, the brand suggested that the lines between the categories of consumer – ‘meat eater’, ‘vegetarian’ and ‘vegan’ – are becoming blurred, with a tiny percentage of hardcore vegans contrasting to a large population of people cutting down on meat consumption.
Take the UK, for example. A recent survey by the think tank Social Market Foundation revealed that roughly 58% of UK consumers have made some effort to cut down in their meat intake.
The brand also points out that consumers are driven by health more than by sustainability or animal welfare. It feels it can reach more people by appealing to health than by appealing to those factors.
