A team of GFI APAC staffers recently travelled across China to see with our own eyes what the country’s major biomanufacturing push means for Singapore and the future of Asia’s protein supply. What we saw only further solidified our confidence that China will play a decisive role in the long-term success of the future-food sector.
A mere 12 months ago, our experts published a look ahead at 2025 and outlined five reasons to be hopeful about APAC’s alternative protein sector, based on changes we expected to see over the course of the year. So how’d we do?
Just hours ago, a series of high-profile sessions focused on scaling up sustainable foods concluded at COP30—the United Nations Climate Change Conference—in Belém, Brazil, where negotiators from more than 190 countries are working through the night to forge consensus on which climate fixes to fund.
To objectively measure whether or not the newest crop of products that combine animal meat and high-quality plant proteins were close to reaching taste parity with their conventional counterparts, GFI APAC partnered with NECTAR and commissioned A*STAR's SIFBI to conduct Asia’s first independent, large-scale blind taste test.
Later this month, Singaporean shoppers browsing the meat aisle will start to see new options that are neither fully plant- or animal-based, but rather, animal meat enhanced with plant proteins.
The Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein @NUS further expanded its influence by announcing a new grant opportunity jointly funded with Enterprise Singapore (ESG), which will offer startups a premier slot on stage at Singapore International Agri-Food Week (SIAW) and the opportunity to secure 150,000 SGD in cash.
Earlier this year, China reaffirmed protein diversification as a central tenet of its national food strategy. Now, analysis by GFI has shined the spotlight on another indicator of China’s long-term commitment to food security: its assertive pursuit of global cultivated meat patents.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) officially announced Australia’s first-ever approval of a cultivated meat product, opening up a potentially lucrative new market for the cellular agriculture sector and setting an important precedent for global regulators.
Our State of the Industry reports are an annual deep dive into the global alt protein sector. The latest edition of the series compiles business developments, policy updates, and scientific breakthroughs from 2024 that are advancing the field and shaping a world where alternative proteins are no longer alternative.
This report explores the behaviours and attitudes of consumers in Southeast Asia regarding both plant-based and conventional meat. It seeks to uncover the factors driving and hindering the adoption of plant-based meat, while also identifying high- and low-interest market segments in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
