Will oats become the king of plant-based milk

Almonds, soybeans, coconut, defatted or full fat? The store offers dazzling milk, but a new option is experiencing unprecedented growth and is quickly becoming a vegetarian's favorite-oat milk.

Five years ago, the oatmeal milk market was almost non-existent, but according to the Good Food Institute, sales of this non-dairy beverage soared 222% in the 12 months to April 2019 . In recent months, Starbucks, American yogurt giant Chobani, and Nesquik have all begun to provide oat milk-known for its nutritional and environmental benefits. Andy Coyne, a food reporter at research company GlobalData, said: "Oat milk seems to be very popular, especially in the United States, and there is no other plant milk." In 2016, Sweden ’s world leader Oatly took the lead in entering the US market, offering oat milk in coffee shops and supplying cappuccinos and lattes. Coyne said: "This is a very clever marketing strategy. It has become a word of mouth phenomenon, and its popularity has grown from there."

According to data compiled by the Good Food Institute, oat milk sales account for just over 1% of US almond milk sales. Good Food Research Institute promotes plant-based meat, dairy and egg substitutes. But Oatmeal expects their products to catch up soon, and says it has an advantage over competitors in taste. Peter Truby, chief marketing officer of Elmhurst, an American oat milk producer, said: "Almond milk is great, but tastes a lot like almonds. If you do n’t want to add almond flavor to coffee, you just want to find Creamy things are used to match coffee without making the coffee too heavy, so what should I do? "

Although oatmeal has a very ordinary human image, Oatly successfully positioned oatmeal as a high-end product, first established in the coffee market. It is now everywhere on supermarket shelves.

Environmental benefits

For Mike Messersmith, president of North American Oatly Catering Group, in addition to taste, oat milk has two other advantages, which are very consistent with the rise of veganism.

First, its nutritional properties: low-calorie, rich in fiber, and contains more protein than other grains. Unlike soybeans or almonds, it rarely causes allergies. Second, it "minimizes the impact on our natural resources." According to a study published in Science in 2018, the production of milk and almond milk requires 15 times and 8 times the water required to produce oat milk, respectively. "Sustainability is becoming an important selling point, which clearly resonates with consumers," food reporter Coyne saidOtley sent some of its residue to the mushroom farm for soil, and Elmhurst claimed that it produced almost no residue. Another major advantage of oat milk over its competitors is that production costs are about a third lower than almonds.

In 2019, Otali opened its first US factory in New Jersey, and this summer, the company is also preparing to open another factory in Ogden, Utah. Other companies include Planet Oat Pacific Foods, Califia Farms and French giant Danone (Danone), which bought WhiteWave Foods for $ 12.5 billion in 2016. "I think it will take a few years because almond milk has been dominant for a long time. But just like almond milk beats soy milk, I really think oat milk will be the leader."