From greenqueen.com.hk
By Anay Mridul
Europe’s plant-based food market grew by 5% from 2024-25, reaching €16.3B in value as several products outpaced animal proteins – but it still makes up a fraction of the region’s food and drink sales.
Demand for plant-based food remained strong in Europe in 2025, driven by interest in everyday formats rather than just meat mimics.
Across the six largest markets in the region – the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and the Netherlands – the plant-based category reached €16.3b in value in 2025, up 5.1% from the year before, according to market research firm Circana.
Despite the hike, this sector accounts for just 2.4% of overall food and drink sales in Europe, indicating a gap between consumer interest and true market scale and significant headroom for growth.
“Plant-based food and drinks have reached a pivotal moment,” Ananda Roy, Circana’s senior VP of thought leadership and consumer goods advisor for Europe, said during a keynote address at the Plant FWD conference in Amsterdam (April 9).
“The foundations for growth are firmly in place, but the next phase will not be driven by hype or novelty. It will be driven by how effectively the industry delivers products that fit into everyday consumer behaviour,” he added.
Flexitarians lead demand as GLP-1 drugs shift consumer habits
The momentum of the plant-based market is increasingly driven by products for everyday consumption rather than niche alternatives, according to Circana.
Nuts and seeds alone make up 45% of all value sales in the category, followed by dairy alternatives (21%) and ready meals (15%) – meat and seafood analogues represent just 4% of the market in these six countries.
That shift reflects how consumers are changing their behaviour to move away from substitution and towards integration into their daily diets. Circana noted that the demand is being driven by everyday shoppers, but not just historical plant-based consumers.
Flexitarians are the most important lever of growth. Only around 11% of Europeans follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, but the number of people who identify as flexitarian grew from 21% in 2022 to 31% in 2024.
The next phase of growth will be driven by consumers’ shifting expectations from their food, with health, nutrition and affordability among their top priorities.
People are looking for more than just a vegan burger now. They want meat alternatives that deliver benefits across protein consumption, energy, and gut health. At the same time, the boom in GLP-1 drugs is pushing people to eat smaller, more nutrient-dense meals.
Take the UK, for example: more than 1.5 million Brits now use a weight-loss medication, a share that nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025. And savvy food brands are already responding with formats that put protein and fibre at the centre.
Nielsen analysis shows that chilled plant-based food volume demand rose by just under 1% across UK supermarkets in 2025, rising to 1.7% in the final quarter. Tesco, the country’s largest retailer, ascribed the revival of this market to the heightening demand for “veg-led foods” rich in protein and fibre.
Plant-based brands should prioritise affordability and functionality
Circana’s report reinforces Germany’s leadership in Europe’s plant-based market, where value sales rose by 7.2% and volumes by 4.2%. Spain saw value growth accelerate by 7.5% as well.
However, some countries didn’t perform as strongly. The UK, despite being the second-largest market at €4.5B, continued to stagnate, with volumes down 0.7% last year. It was one of the only countries in Europe to experience a volume decline in 2024, too.
This divergence outlines the importance of execution, pricing and relevance in driving category performance, according to Circana. In fact, closing the price gap between plant-based and animal proteins remains a top barrier.
Despite that chasm, vegan products are outperforming their animal-based counterparts in volume growth across key segments such as dairy and ready meals. Greater affordability for plant-based proteins will only unlock broader adoption.
Circana suggests the industry is at a critical inflection point, where future growth will depend on how well brands and retailers respond to changing consumer needs.
“With flexitarian consumers now leading demand, and growth becoming more uneven across markets, the plant-based category is entering a new, more competitive phase,” it said. “For retailers and manufacturers, the challenge is no longer about building awareness, but about turning interest into habit.”
It pinpointed several priorities for Europe’s plant-based food industry, including a focus on taste-led innovation to drive repeat purchases and better price competitiveness to expand mainstream adoption. Brands should also deliver credible nutritional and functional benefits, integrate ‘plant-based’ into core categories rather than isolate it, and expand beyond substitutes into broader alternatives that stand on their own.
“We are seeing a clear shift away from niche, imitation-led innovation towards more natural, functional and accessible products,” said Roy. “The winners will be those who can close the gap between taste, nutrition and price, and integrate plant-based seamlessly into everyday consumption occasions.”
https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/europe-plant-based-market-sales-growth-2025-circana/
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