The Ministry of Agriculture has not yet seen the prospects in the Russian Federation for vegetable meat substitutes

The Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation does not yet see any special prospects for replacing traditional vegetable MEAT in the Russian food market. The ministry believes that the production of alternative products, as well as their exports, will depend on demand.

"In the medium term, the prospects (for plant analogues - IF) are not very good," Deputy Minister of Agriculture Oksana Lut said at the Deep Food Tech Conference 2021 (an international conference dedicated to innovation and breakthrough technologies in food), answering a question about the prospects for substitution.

At the same time, estimates of the scale of such substitution were voiced at the conference - from 5% to 25%.

As Loot noted, her position is largely due to the fact that RUSSIA has conservative consumption. “In addition, any new product requires changes in regulatory documents. Everything is regulated in the state, there are rational consumption standards of the Ministry of HEALTH. Is there something about vegetable meat? No. There are basic classic types of products,” she said.

At the same time, the deputy minister noted that the department takes into account new trends in the food market and has various support measures for the introduction of new technologies, including those related to the environment. But the main thing is that there is a demand for such products, she noted. “If you look from the point of view of business, there is demand, you can work, no, no support will help you. The main thing is the presence of demand in us and in those countries where our business is looking,” she said.

At the same time, Luth said that she believes in Russia's EXPORT potential for innovative products. This is due, first of all, to the fact that "we have a lot of land, and the basis of deep food tech is still vegetable raw materials," she said.