Eggs, a typically low-cost protein, now cost ~60% more YoY, leading egg headlines (and jokes) to dominate our feeds.
But some consumers have realized you don’t have to break a few eggs, turning to omelet alternatives and creating new business opportunities, per NPR.
Ron Kern of Back Forty Farms in Idaho is selling freeze-dried egg powder that lasts for years for ~$20-$60 a package — and they’ve been selling out.
But there’s also the no-egg egg
The plant-based egg market isn’t huge, worth $30m in the US and accounting for just 0.13% of total egg sales, per Bloomberg.
Its funding also pales in comparison to the alt-meat market, securing $208.7m in 2021 compared to plant-based meat’s $2B, per Crunchbase.
But here’s something interesting: Plant-based eggs typically cost more than chicken eggs (AKA shell eggs). Yet in late 2022, prices dropped to ~$1 cheaper per unit than shell eggs.
As shell egg sales declined, plant-based egg sales rose.
Eat Just Inc…
… makes a no-cholesterol liquid egg alternative from mung beans. Its sales shot up 17% YoY. (Fun fact: Eat Just also makes lab-grown chicken that’s available in Singapore.)
Eat Just accounts for ~99% of US liquid plant-based egg sales, but it’s not the only player in the space:
- Yo! Egg’s soy and chickpea protein eggs — available in “fried,” “poached,” and “boiled” varieties — are on the menu at an Israeli breakfast chain.
- Germany’s Perfeggt, made from fava beans, raised $4m in March.
- Spero Foods makes its liquid egg alternative from pumpkin seeds.
The real question is: Will the high prices spur egg loyalists to try something new? Or, as in the past, will we just suck it up?
