10% of all the “milk” in the country is no longer of animal origin. At least, of all the milk that passes through the supermarket shelves. To the report that has just been published GFI Europe Many buts can be said about Circana’s retail data (among them that GFI is a think tank that promotes alternative proteins), but there is something that no one disputes anymore: things have changed.
Today, Spain has the consumption quota for vegetable drinks highest in Europe.
What is happening with the milk? In aggregate terms, the change doesn’t seem too big. According to the report data, vegetable drinks were 10.4% of the volume of milk sold in Spanish supermarkets in 2025; Compared to this, in 2023 it was 9.2%. In euros, we talk about 354.9 million. In liters, 288.5 million.
The most curious thing, however, is that half of that 10% is oatmeal drink.
And why is it curious? Because according to various analyzes it seems that this boom in vegetable drinks is due to price. And they are partly right, of course, today (at a pure price) there are private label soy drinks cheaper than a liter of normal milk.
However, what we see within the category is that cheap soybeans are sinking and more expensive varieties (and in barista format) are rising.
That is to say, it seems that price parity has put drinks in shopping baskets. But, once inside, follow other rules. In a context in which the liquid cow’s milk loses volume Year after year in Spain, vegetable drinks gain percentage.
A change of trend… A decade ago, investments in ‘fake meat’ were the order of the day. The arrival of high-tech food products that emulated meat was received as a trailer for the future. The problem is that the engine of that trend seized and stagnated. Experts talk about ‘artificiality’, ‘price’ and ‘political polarization’.
But the example of vegetable drinks is the best to understand that this war of positions is not over. While the meats They have been withdrawing their ‘veggie’ proposals and ‘plant-based’ consumption has been falling, the country’s large dairy plants do they continue to bet on their own drinks oats or soy.
It’s a great reminder of how we make trends ourselves.
Spain, food laboratory. We recently talked about how Spain has become the great laboratory of non-alcoholic beers and now we discover that it also happens with vegetable drinks. It is not clear what it is about this country, but it seems clear that its food market is one of the most proactive on the continent. And that, as we well know, is an opportunity and a punishment at the same time.
Image | Peyman Shojaei
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