PLANT-BASED MEAT IN THE MEXICAN MARKET: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This thesis explores the concept of plant-based meat by studying its history, formulation, drivers, and barriers as well as its historical relationship with Mexico.

Being part of one of the most important developing economies in the Latin American region, the Mexican consumer is also one of the largest consumers of traditional meats in the world, the excess consumption of this food has led the country to face serious environmental and health problems.

The thesis considers consumer behavior theories to examine the relation of Mexican consumers with plant-based meat and performs an empirical analysis on a primary database collected by a structured online survey conducted to 201 participants.

The information gathered from the survey describes and offers insights on the perception and acceptance of the Mexican consumer contributing to the understanding and future development of plant-based meat in the Mexican market.

The results show that there is a lack of knowledge about this type of meat substitutes and in spite of the general willingness of the consumer to adopt plant-based meat in their diets there exist a lot of ambivalence on a country that still considered this type of food to be niche product.

In addition, as an overall this thesis expects to contribute to further investigations on plant-based meat consumption in the Mexican and Latin American markets as well as in other developing economies.