Greeley’s JBS to launch plant-based meat brand made in Boulder County

GREELEY and BOULDER COUNTY — JBS USA, the beef-producing sister company to Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (Nasdaq: PPC), is joining its industry competitors within the plant-based meat segment.

The Greeley beef producer said it will launch a line of plant-based meat alternatives under the brand name OZO with subsidiary company Planterra Foods next month.

In a prepared statement, Planterra CEO Darcey Macken said the line of alternative burger products are meant to be consumed as part of a larger non-vegetarian diet.

“Our goal is to grow flexitarian consumption through offering a positive protein solution for everyone,” she said.

Planterra was planning to debut OZO products at the Expo West natural products conference this week, but the event was postponed due to ongoing fears over spreading COVID-19, the strain of coronavirus that has infected just more than 98,000 people and killed more than 3,300 people worldwide as of Friday morning.

Planterra is headquartered in Boulder County.

JBS’ major competitors like Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN), Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) and Perdue Farms Inc. have all introduced their own plant-based meat brands in the past several years as the industry scrambles to diversify its offerings as companies like Beyond Meat Inc. (Nasdaq: BYND) and Impossible Foods Inc. gain popularity. Last year, Swiss investment bank UBS predicted plant-based meat will be an $85 billion market by 2030.

Planterra is producing the plant-based meats alongside fellow Boulder company Emergy Inc., which is trying to replicate full cuts of meat using plant replacements.

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