US start-up Eat Just Inc yesterday said that Dicos (德克士), one of China’s largest fast food chains, has added plant-based egg products supplied by the San Francisco-based firm to menus at more than 500 outlets across China.
Dicos would replace its conventional egg patty in items such as breakfast burgers and bagels with the US firm’s “Just Egg” — made from mung beans — at restaurants in cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, Eat Just cofounder and chief executive officer Josh Tetrick said by telephone.
Although still a tiny business compared with China’s giant animal-based supply chain, vegetarian alternatives to meat, dairy and seafood are rapidly gaining in popularity.
Photo: Aly Song, Reuters
Euromonitor International, a market research provider, predicted that China’s meat-substitutes market would be worth US$12.3 billion by 2025, up from US$10.8 billion last year.
Tetrick did not disclose financial terms of Eat Just’s deal with Dicos, but he said that the COVID-19 pandemic had renewed concerns about domestic food safety in China.
“There is more awareness in China on safety, on clean protein and protein free of antibiotics,” Tetrick said, adding that his firm was in talks with other Chinese restaurant chains to supply Just Egg.
Dicos confirmed its cooperation with Eat Just on microblogging site Sina Weibo, saying that it was “an innovative new food that helped to support sustainable development for humanity in future.”
Last year, brands such as Starbucks Corp, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Beyond Meat Inc and Oatly rolled out plant-based food and beverage offerings in China, aiming to attract more curious and environmentally conscious diners.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
RSS