Why China’s consumers found the hype around plant-based meat hard to swallow

The closure of Beyond Meat’s China business, despite heavy financing and marketing, underscores challenges that scuppered many vegan meat firms

Reading Time:3 minutes

Chinese consumers complain that the texture of plant-based meat products does not match that of real meat. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:00pm, 6 Dec 2025

Only a few years ago, the notion that Beyond Meat – the former poster child of the plant-based meat industry – would shut down its operations in China seemed unthinkable. At the height of the brand’s popularity, its label could be found adorning heavily promoted products at restaurants and grocery stores across major cities.

Many observers speculated that the alternative meat company and others like it had found the next great success story in the country’s rapidly evolving consumer market.

But barely three years after launching its direct-to-consumer channels in 2022, Beyond Meat announced in February that it would suspend its China business. Its online stores were closed last month, and it has laid off most of its employees and halted production at its factory in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, according to media reports.

The American company, which received backing from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and a host of celebrity investors in its early years, entered China to great fanfare in 2020, sealing partnerships with Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut and retailers such as Sam’s Club and Costco.

Its plant-based meat – made from ingredients like soy, peas or wheat and mimicking the taste, texture and appearance of animal flesh – was, for a time, ubiquitous. But the craze ultimately proved to be short-lived.

Gu Shuyu, from the Tractus Asia management consultancy, said China’s vegan meat bust was ultimately not an issue of price, taste or technology; the product, he contended, never had a real, sustainable use case.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x