At Lidl, meat substitutes now cost the same as real meat: “They want to break the classic meat, fries, vegetables pattern”

Equality on the plate. That is Lidl’s new motto. From May 15, vegetarian and vegan products from the private label Vemondo will no longer be more expensive than their animal-based variants. For the time being, there are 15 to 20 items for which the price will be permanently reduced. From soy milk and soy yogurt to vegan minced meat and cream. “It concerns almost our entire range,” says Ines Verschaeve, sustainability coordinator at Lidl. “Why not everything? Not every substitute has an animal variant. Falafel balls, for example, are difficult to compare.”

In all Belgian supermarkets you pay more for the majority of vegetarian or vegan meat substitutes than for animal products. Soybeans that are processed are still more expensive than a flesh-and-blood animal. And this is because of the high raw material, production and marketing costs. Lidl wants to turn this pricing upside down. Or rather: equalize. “We want to make plant-based choices more accessible to all consumers,” says Verschaeve. “If there are promotions on meat, you will find the same promotions on the plant-based ones.”

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Research conducted by iVox on behalf of Lidl shows that more than four in ten Belgians (42 percent) indicate that they would buy more vegetarian and/or vegan products if they were cheaper. Moreover, half of those surveyed (49 percent) are convinced that the replacements are actually more expensive. Verschaere: “By reducing the price, we hope that Belgians will evolve towards a healthier and more sustainable diet. If he wants to make pasta, it would be great if he considered our vegan minced meat. Today, this thought exercise is not done enough.”

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Pierre-Alexandre Billiet, CEO of Gondola, a knowledge platform for the retail sector, calls Lidl’s new strategy a bold move for the entire sector. Yes, even a “game changer”. “A large part of their customers is still not sufficiently sensitive to this vegetable fact,” he says. “They stick to their Burgundian plate with meat, fries and vegetables. By influencing that eating pattern on a large scale, Lidl can reach a new target group that until recently had little interest in it.”

If Lidl were to succeed, the rest of the supermarkets would have to follow, he adds. But they won’t do that for now. Both Colruyt and Delhaize are committed to sustainability, albeit in different ways. “Vegetarian products and their “classic” counterparts are intrinsically different and therefore have different pricing,” says Delhaize spokesperson Roel Dekelver. Colruyt will only follow Lidl if their price for a similar product is lower. “Then we lower prices in our surrounding stores,” says Hanne Poppe.

Lidl wants to maintain the strategy in the longer term. It fits into the major ‘Protein Shift’ that the Flemish government has in mind. The aim of this shift is to ensure that Flemish people get about 40 percent of their proteins from animals and 60 percent from plants by 2030. In addition to the price reduction, the retailer also wants to expand its range of meat substitutes by a fifth. Lidl Germany already preceded our country. And there, sales of plant-based food have increased by thirty percent.