Hong Kong-based Green Monday has continued its expansion across Asia this year with launches in Thailand and Singapore, though its latest venture sees it launching in Mainland China’s with a new plant-based platform from Green Common to help transform people’s eating habits for the better. Debuting the Tmall Global Flagship later this month, Green Common will retail more than 40 plant-based products to Mainland Chinese consumers and has plans for rapid expansion across the country in coming months.
The new store, slated to open in Tmall on November 29th 2019, will provide a one-stop-shop for sustainable and healthy lifestyle products. Aside from retail outlets, the brand will also collaborate with restaurants and hotels on plant-based menus and culinary education. The store will feature more than 40 plant-based products from the USA and Canada, in addition to Green Common’s own products.
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“Our collaboration with Tmall Global is a milestone development in the China market, enabling local consumers to get a taste of the future,” said Green Common Founder David Yeung. “With our store’s inauguration on November 29, we are going to start a new page in leading a healthy and sustainable food consumption trend in China.”
Since the 1960s, meat production globally has risen by nearly five times, and a report by BBC notes that China’s increasing wealth has seen its meat consumption rise from an annual 5KG per person to more than 60KG in the past 50 years. Aside from the rising levels of chronic illness and cases of obesity in China related to poor nutrition, the impacts of the meat industry on climate change have been well-documented.
Embracing more alternative protein and plant-based products provides an accessible solution to both health and environmental problems. The good news is, interest in healthy lifestyles are on the rise in Mainland China: Euromonitor reported that over the last five years, China’s vegan market has grown by 17.2%, while Agility Research found that living a healthy lifestyle took priority for Mainland Chinese Millennials and Gen Z consumers over wealth, career and having a family.
Green Common’s new flagship store is just the start of the social enterprise’s venture in China: over the next two months and into 2020, more than 180 restaurants, hotels and outlets in Shanghai and Beijing will be showcasing dishes that highlight plant-based and alternative-protein ingredients, like OmniPork.
See also: The Ultimate Guide To Plant-Based Dining In Hong Kong
Grand Hyatt Beijing will be the first hotel partner to launch OmniPork in Mainland China, where it will debut plant-based dishes of OmniPork Chops with Fruit Sauce, and Deep-Fried OmniPork-stuffed Lotus Root Cake—both will be available at the Grand Café lunch buffet from November 7th to November 30th 2019. Meanwhile, healthy cafe chain Wagas will introduce a ‘Flexitarian Future’ menu from November 6th featuring flexitarian bolognese, meatballs, tacos and power bowls. Soon to follow with its own plant-based dishes and menus are the Park Hyatt Shanghai, The Langham Shanghai, Cordis Shanghai Hongqiao, and restaurant chains Taco Bell and Tsui Wah Restaurant.
