In a new report titled Asian Cropportunities: Supplying Raw Materials for Plant-Based Meat, The Good Food Institute Asia Pacific outlines how rising fears of animal-borne diseases and demand for natural products—both of which have accelerated amid the Covid-19 pandemic—could disproportionately benefit farmers and producers of certain crops in the Asia Pacific region; and Myanmar, in particular. 

This shift away from industrial animal agriculture also has the potential to help the nation combat the effects of climate change by transitioning towards more sustainable forms of food production.

Plant-based meat, made primarily from soy and wheat, has existed in Asia for centuries, mostly catering to Buddhists who seek to avoid animal consumption for religious reasons. But increasingly brands are diversifying their recipes by incorporating new ingredients and flavors to create products aimed squarely at meat eaters. “2.0”-level plant-based meat products use a biomimicry approach to replicate the taste, texture, and appearance of animal meat, and consumers can’t get enough of them. 

This next generation of plant-based meats has now begun to appear on select Asian menus at McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Even during a year when the global food system is under extraordinary strain, Asia Pacific-based companies focused on alternative proteins like plant-based meat have raised more than US$230 million in funding to accelerate their growth. This presents an opportunity of unprecedented scale for agricultural nations like Myanmar.

Chickpeas, for example, have been cultivated for more than 7,400 years. Among the seven Asian nations that we analyzed in our report (which also includes regional power centers like China, Thailand, and Vietnam), Myanmar accounts for the vast majority—97 percent—of chickpea production. At a time when up-and-coming brands like Singapore-based PHUTURE Foods are using chickpea protein to create innovative new products like PHUTURE Mince, which is a plant-based version of traditional minced meat, Myanmar’s domination of chickpea cultivation means the country could be unknowingly sitting atop an ingredient gold mine.

The same could be said for the mung bean, of which Myanmar is also the dominant producer among our researched countries. A traditional staple ingredient throughout East and Southeast Asia—used in everything from soups and porridges to bread and cellophane noodles—mung beans have emerged as one of the most promising ingredients for a variety of alternative protein applications. 

Eat Just, Inc., a leading food technology company and producer of plant-based foods, announced in October 2020 that they will soon open their first protein production plant in Asia, to be located in Singapore, as part of their strategy to create “a fully-integrated supply chain” in the region. And what ingredient forms the base of their highly-acclaimed plant-based egg? You guessed it—mung beans. In this new food landscape, Myanmar has an opening to assert itself as the plant-based ingredient supplier to the world.

Consumers’ embrace of plant-based meat made from a diverse range of crops like chickpeas and mung beans, instead of animals, could carry many advantages for Myanmar’s efforts to mitigate natural-resource depletion. Industrial animal agriculture is an inherently inefficient system that contributes to ecological devastation at both a global and local scale.