Next Meats, the Japanese plant-based brand, will be launching three new products. The plant based alternatives will be tuna, pork meat, and milk. The products are scheduled to launch first in Japan around October through the company’s online shop.
The NEXT Pork will be offered as a ready-to-eat meal, similar to “Shoga-yaki”, a popular dish in Japan. Pork is the most popular type of meat in Japan.
The plant-based tuna aims to cater to consumers who are accustomed to Japan’s seafood-rich diet. The plant based milk is projected to be a success, since a high proportion of the Japanese population is lactose intolerant.
The past year has been filled with numerous successful collaborations for Next Meats, including one with US chain Wayback Burgers, which began using Next’s Short Rib to make plant-based sliders. In May, the company partnered with IKEA to offer what the chain claimed was the world’s first plant-based Japanese beef bowl. Earlier in March, supermarket chain Yokado began displaying Next’s products in the meat aisle. Additionally, Next Meats recently announced it would be opening an eco-friendly factory powered by solar energy.
Next Meats said it would be focusing on the US market in the coming months. “We, as a company, predict that success in the US market will lead to more than 100 times the growth as of now,” said Ryo Shirai, the brand’s co-representative. “Thus we are focusing more than other market developments.”
He added that they are thrilled to be able to respond to the myriad requests they had received from fans to develop a pork alternative, and to also release the company’s first alternative fish product. In Japan pork is consumed the most out of all types of meat and seafood is consumed widely as well, so Next Meats believes the release of the NEXT Pork and NEXT Tuna is an important step towards a more sustainable future.
