Beyond Meat Gets Challenged as Impossible Foods Starts Selling Directly to Customers

While Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND) has been making big gains lately, including a 29% stock market rise in May and a June rollout of its plant-based burgers in China, rival Impossible Foods is taking steps to catch up. With textured pea and potato proteins offering closer (and tastier) analogs to actual meat than the soy patties of yore, and healthier eating all the rage nowadays, the race is on among companies to secure a place in the growing plant-based meat market. Research by Global Market Insights, Inc. predicts the market will explode to $4.15 billion in sales annually by 2026, with some areas of the U.S. potentially witnessing a 26% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in demand over the same period.