Hong Kong plant-based meat brand Green Monday opens its first mainland restaurant in Shanghai. Photo: Xie Jun/GT

 
Hong Kong plant-based meat brand Green Monday opened its first mainland restaurant on December 24 in Shanghai, the latest example of Hong Kong companies' efforts to tap business opportunities in post-coronavirus era on the Chinese mainland. 

The two-story store, which consists of a restaurant and a retail section to sell plant-based meat dishes, is the 10th restaurant Green Monday has opened. The brand owns nine restaurants in Hong Kong. 

It is entering the mainland at a time when the consumption for plant-based meat started to show signs of bursting in the Chinese mainland, after the African swine fever sent pork price skyrocketing and the coronavirus pandemic has fueled a demand for healthier food, which Chinese consumers often associated with vegetables.

The huge Chinese consumer market is also feeding global food companies' ambitions in plant-based meat. Nestle, for example, recently announced to invest the company's first faux-meat factory in North China's Tianjin.

"Afterperhaps five years, the mainland market should evolve to become one of the world's leading plant-based meat markets, one of the top three or four markets, or even the largest one," David Yeung, founder and CEO of Green Monday Group told the Global Times on Monday, adding the company aims to open at least one store in very first-tier city in the Chinese mainland in the next two or three years.

He also said it took about eight years for the plant-based meat industry to take root in Hong Kong accounting for a large market share, but in mainland the speed should be faster considering the huge population base, the government's call for environmental protection and the coronavirus-triggered fitness trend. 

"It should take only three to five years for the mainland to experience noticeable changes in our industry," he said, adding that mainland might become his company's focus market in the near future. 

Green Monday's entrance is also an example of Hong Kong companies' eagerness to tap the mainland market at a time when Hong Kong and many overseas markets are still grappling with the coronavirus impact, while the mainland has managed to move on after successfully putting the coronavirus under control. 

More than 45 Hong Kong companies attended the third China International Import Expo trying to explore market opportunities in the mainland.

Hong Kong plant-based meat brand Green Monday opens its first mainland restaurant on Monday in Shanghai. Photo: Xie Jun/GT

 
Cafe de Coral, a Hong Kong fast food brand, disclosed to media recently that the company is intended to put more focus on the mainland market, particularly the Greater Bay area, as the pandemic is controlled in the mainland and the government rolled out stimulus policies.

Yeung said that the pandemic had negatively impacted the company's restaurant revenues in Hong Kong, but has boosted its retail sales. Overall, the company's revenues rose four times this year compared with last year. 

Global Times