Since its inception in 2022, OnlyEg has rapidly grown from its home base in Singapore to multiple markets across APAC including Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia, and earlier this year also cracked the rapidly-growing Middle Eastern market with entry into the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to OnlyEg parent company Float Foods’ CEO Vinita Choolani, the key to unlocking entry and consumer demand across all of these markets has been prioritising the ‘no sacrifice’ element of OnlyEg’s products.
“The main challenge for us has been to transition consumers over to that situation where they are completely comfortable when eating our products, where the taste and texture and enjoyment of plant-based meat or eggs or dairy is exactly the same as the real thing,” she told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“This is the point where we know, there is no sacrifice being made any longer, and this is what we are really aiming for, being that a lot of consumers may see food as health and nutrition but there are a huge number of foodies out there who will definitely stress that food is enjoyment.
“So it is a no sacrifice game that needs to be won in order to win them over, and it will only be when that level of quality and taste is achieved that we can be confident they won’t want to switch back from plant-based.”
Another major element to OnlyEg’s rapid growth and marketing strategy has been the major amount of support it has received from its home base in Singapore, which Choolani attributes to a strong awareness of food safety and security issues surrounding not only eggs but the food supply as a whole.
“The entire infrastructure in Singapore, whether it's government funding or investors or VCs or entrepreneurs are all really buying in to this big picture that something needs to be done about the current fragility of Singapore’s food system, and something really needs to be done about it,” she said.
“This is apparent from the numbers, where since we launched commercially in June last year we have been seeing some 60% month-on-month increase in adoption and consumption, which has been very encouraging and gratifying.
“Most importantly, although there are still naysayers who say Singapore is not yet ready for plant-based as a fixture, this really shows that Singapore is ready, as long as you can make products up-to-par with the quality and taste they demand.
“We consume two billion eggs annually here in Singapore, and there is no reason why we cannot complement the local egg supply with nutrient-dense, plant-based eggs that taste, smell and look like chicken eggs.
“This way, we give consumers the choice - whether to eat chicken eggs or opt for substitutes where they can't really tell the difference - and we believe this is the key to plant-based adoption.”
OnlyEg’s RTE product range includes various product formats such as shredded egg, omelettes, tamagoyaki and egg patties.
Watch the video above to find out more.
