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US alternative egg brand cracks European market

Just Egg is set to be produced in Europe’s largest plant-based facility as plant-based egg brands look to take advantage of the supply chain crisis.

In the US, everyone is talking about eggs – and they have been for some time.

Avian flu, supply chain disruptions, and price gouging by big companies have all been reported as drivers. But perhaps the mayhem (or mayhen?) provides an opportunity for companies that make alternatives to this popular source of protein.

“Chicken eggs are harder to find, more expensive, and less reliable than ever before,” said Joshua Tetrick, co-founder and CEO at Eat Just in February, as he announced that his company’s Just Egg product grew “five times faster” in the four weeks prior to the same period in 2024.

As many as 500 million of the plant-based eggs, made from mung beans, have been sold since its launch in 2019 (though this is the fifth version of the “egg”).

And now the brand is breaking into Europe.

Vegan Food Group secures exclusive partnership with Just Egg

In April, the UK-headquartered Vegan Food Group secured exclusive European manufacturing and distribution rights for Just Egg.

“Welcome to the future of eggs. No chickens required,” wrote Matthew Glover, the group’s chairman and co-founder of Veganuary, on social media.

The European Commission approved Eat Just’s mung bean-based product in 2022 through its Novel Foods Regulation. There will reportedly be a “slight tweak” to the recipe for Europeans, “although the base mung bean ingredient will be the same”, Glover said.

“There’ll be no noticeable difference in taste or quality,” he added.

An £11.25 million investment will help provide a fully automated production line at the Lüneburg site in Germany (Europe’s “largest” plant-based facility). Commercial production is expected to begin in late 2025, with a reported 500 million eggs per year production output expected.

“This partnership is a huge leap forward in transforming plant-based foods across Europe,” Glover said.

Massive market for egg alternatives

Per-capita egg consumption has increased by 7% over the past decade across the EU, to around 13 kg per person per year in 2020, according to the NGO Compassion in World Farming.

The intensification of the production process has raised environmental and ethical concerns, while outbreaks of diseases like avian flu continue to disrupt supply chains and feed into food security worries.

Alternatives are therefore an attractive proposition. Engineering of plant-based alternatives and use of precision fermentation could produce “better” eggs with added fibre, minerals, and vitamins. Other drivers of this industry are the increasing prevalence of egg allergies, awareness towards environmental sustainability, and the shift to vegan diets.

In its 2024 State of the Industry: Plant-based meat, seafood, eggs, dairy, and ingredients report, the Good Food Institute (GFI) noted: “The nascent category of plant-based eggs saw impressive gains, which seem poised to continue as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) spreads among egg-laying hens in the United States.”

The category “appears poised for growth”, it added.

There are challenges, however, not least in matching the “remarkable versatility” of eggs, according to Alan Alvarez, an expert in nutrition and global health at the University of Leeds School of Food Science and Nutrition.

“Mimicking the properties that allow one single ingredient to be used perfectly for so many different things is very difficult to achieve,” he added.

Cracking cost and consumer confidence barriers

Writing in the journal Foods in 2022, academics from Spain and Ireland said in-depth market studies are required to capture this emerging market’s challenges and opportunities.

“Qualitative and quantitative surveys considering different countries, continents, gender, age, education level, and income are for interest to understand consumers’ behaviours toward such a new market,” they added.

ProVeg International, an NGO working on food system change, has noted that neophobia – the nervousness of associated with trying something new – is one of several barriers to growth. The high cost associated with plant-based egg products and the lack of price parity with animal-based egg are others.

The price premium on plant-based eggs versus “real” eggs was 110% in 2024, according to GFI data – far higher than beef (14%) but lower than chicken (155%).

Sales of plant-based eggs were $46 million in 2023-24, with unit sales of 7 million. Meat and seafood combined managed $1.2 billion and 195 million respectively.

As Eat Just’s Tetrick has said, the biggest advantage, cost-wise, that brands like his have over a chicken egg is that roughly 53% of the cost of every egg comes from the soy and corn the chicken consumes. Egg companies “are stuck with that cost – we’re not”, he added.