News of TGI Fridays’ plant-based burger hits cattle markets
10/01/2018
The makers of Beyond Burger claim it looks, cooks and tastes like ground beef from cows but is made from plants, such as peas and soy.
The announcement had repercussions in the cattle markets. “News of a one-pound gain in carcass weights and the introduction of a plant based burger at TGI Fridays triggered a limit down move in futures,” said the Ag Centre report, a US-based performance report analysing cattle.
“In the broader context of market moving news, these types of news events should not trigger limit moves. Unfortunately, market makers in the cattle contracts are insufficient to provide the liquidity necessary to correct unusual numbers of sell orders and when these orders flow into the market, they are met with a total lack of support and the markets crash.”
Beyond Meat was founded in 2009 with investors including Bill Gates, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson and, somewhat surprisingly, meatpacker Tyson Foods.
Since May, distribution of The Beyond Burger has seen triple digit growth and it is now available at 9,000 food outlets in the US. Beyond Meat claims the burger contains more protein than beef and is lower in fat.
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