Russian company "EFKO" intends to produce up to forty thousand tons of meat from vegetable protein in 2 years, which will amount to 0.4% of natural meat production in the country.

It is planned that the plant, where the artificial meat will be produced, will be located in Belgorod region. According to Sergei Ivanov, the Executive Director of EFCO, several independent laboratories are currently involved in the project. The raw material for such products will be sunflower protein grown on the company's own farm.

As expected, the first goods made of vegetable meat will appear on store shelves in late winter or early spring of the next year. It is vegetable cutlets, and later nuggets, schnitzels, minced meat and other semi-finished products made of artificial meat will be available for customers. Several types of sauce will be developed specially for them.

According to the media, EFCO got interested in foodtech last year and even established an early-stage venture fund Fuel For Growth to invest in the said industry. After studying the market the investor found out that 70% of customers want to try meat from vegetable protein, and a quarter of them are ready to completely abandon natural in favor of artificial.

According to a Bloomberg study, in 5 years, the market for plant-based meat should reach $28 billion.