Pea protein pressure
- The global pea‑protein market is forecast to reach about $4.0 billion by 2033. (prnewswire.com) - Analysts warn raw‑material price volatility, inflation, and currency swings are squeezing pea‑protein supply chains. (openpr.com) - Those input pressures could translate into higher retail prices for plant‑based proteins and supplements. (openpr.com)
Pea protein demand is rising, but the ingredient behind many meat alternatives and shakes is getting squeezed by costs across the supply chain. (prnewswire.com) Persistence Market Research said on April 20 that the global pea-protein market is expected to grow from about $2.5 billion in 2026 to $4.0 billion by 2033, a 7.1% compound annual growth rate. The firm said pea protein is used in plant-based meat, dairy alternatives and sports nutrition. (prnewswire.com) Pea protein is typically made from yellow peas, then processed to concentrate the protein and strip out starch and fiber. Roquette said its Manitoba facility can process 125,000 metric tons of peas a year, illustrating how industrial the category has become. (roquette.com) The category is expanding even as plant-based food sales have cooled from their early boom. The Good Food Institute said the U.S. retail plant-based food market totaled $7.9 billion in 2025, about double its 2017 size. (gfi.org) That leaves manufacturers balancing two forces at once: a larger long-term market and day-to-day swings in farm, freight, labor and energy costs. Price trackers at ChemAnalyst said North American pea-protein isolate costs still faced upward pressure from inflation in late 2025 even as pea feedstock prices weakened. (chemanalyst.com) Raw-pea supply has not been the main constraint this year. Statistics Canada said Canada produced 3.9 million tonnes of dry peas in 2025, up 32.1% from a year earlier, while U.S. dry edible pea production also rose in 2025. (statcan.gc.ca) (release.nass.usda.gov) Even with bigger harvests, processing costs can still climb if wages, utilities, packaging or cross-border trade costs rise faster than raw peas fall. ChemAnalyst said China’s pea-protein market faced elevated import costs in late 2025 because of tariffs on Canadian peas, while North American producers were also dealing with broader inflation pressure. (chemanalyst.com) For shoppers, that means the price of a plant-based burger or protein powder does not move in lockstep with the farm price of peas. The market can grow to $4 billion and still leave brands deciding whether to absorb higher costs, shrink margins or raise shelf prices. (prnewswire.com) (chemanalyst.com)
