2022 was another breakthrough year for the ProVeg South Africa team - we fought the government's Veggie Burger Ban, were involved in organising a side event at COP27 in Egypt, published the first South African Plant-Based Fast Food Ranking, hosted our first environmental film festival, pulled off the world’s largest plant-based braai, and were even featured on Carte Blanche. Despite some significant team changes, our small team once again, with the help of some fantastic partners, punched well above our weight.
The team’s first-ever major foray into policy work came with the Veggie Burger Ban when the Department of Agriculture announced seizures of any plant-based products labelled with words they claimed to be reserved for animal meat products - including ‘burger’, ‘nugget' and ‘sausage’. Despite the chaos this caused, there were a couple of silver linings. This move united the plantbased food sector and propelled the plant-based message into the mainstream news.
In addition to work on the Veggie Burger Ban, we also submitted comments on other policy issues, including changes to the Game Meat Policy, the Climate Change Bill, and the Biodiversity Policy, and contributed to an industry-led consultation regarding changes to the labelling of dairy alternatives.
Our Diet Change Not Climate Change campaign was taken to another level thanks to the involvement of our Programmes Manager, Dr Nanine Wyma, in the #Food4Climate Pavilion at COP27 in Egypt, and our inaugural eco-themed Film Festival was a huge success and a stepping stone for bigger things in 2023. Our annual Plant-Based Heritage Day Braai returned after two years of Covid cancellations, and it was bigger than ever, and even led to what we believe is a world record for the most plant-based burgers eaten at a braai or barbeque!
Other highlights included being the local partner for Veganuary, running the speaker stage at The Plant-Powered Show, and handing out thousands of Fry’s Meat-Free Chicken-Style Nuggets and OKJA plant-based milks at the Two Oceans Marathon expo.
We owe a huge thanks to all our partners, who are too many to mention here - food manufacturers, brands, retailers, lawyers, other NGOs, restaurants, volunteers, and influencers. Our work would not be possible without these amazing partners who work with us in creating a world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet.
Donovan Will Director of ProVeg South Africa
Our global food system is the cause of many of the most pressing problems facing our planet today.
What we eat has fundamental impacts on our planet Besides land and water use, resource waste and biodiversity loss, food system emissions account for about a third of all humanmade greenhouse gas emissions, with animal products having the largest share (about 20% according to the latest study).
Excessive animal consumption increases the risk of so-called lifestyle (non-communicable) diseases. Globally, about two billion people are overweight of which 650 million suffer from obesity, while at the same time up to 800 million people are under- or malnourished.
Animal farming is inefficient and wastes a staggering amount of food. If all crops were used exclusively for direct human consumption, there would be enough food to feed 10 billion people
Industrial farming methods cause suffering to billions of animals. About 80 billion land animals and 2.3 trillion fish are slaughtered each year.
The solution to all of these problems lies in changing the global food system and making our food choices less reliant on animal agriculture.
Transitioning to a more plant-based world comes with a number of benefits. These are representative of ProVeg's 5 PROs - or reasons for switching to plant-based or cultured alterntives. These are Pro Taste, Pro Health, Pro Justice, Pro Animals, and Pro Envrionment.
ProVeg International is a food awareness organisation working to transform the global food system by replacing animal-based products with plant-based and cultured alternatives.
ProVeg works with decision-making bodies, companies, investors, the media, and the general public to help the world transition to a society and economy that are less reliant on animal agriculture and more sustainable for all humans, animals, and our planet.
A world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet
Reducing the global consumption of animals by 50% by 2040
ProVeg has offices in nine countries across four continents and is active worldwide. ProVeg has permanent observer status with the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), special consultative status with ECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council), is accredited for UNEA (United Nations Environment Assembly), and has received the United Nations' Momentum for Change Award.
ProVeg International has teams in Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Czechia, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, the USA, China, and South Africa. ProVeg South Africa, the only African branch, was founded in 2018. This branch focuses its efforts on corporate engagement, communications, and awareness work, campaigns, V-Label, events, and from 2022, policy work
ProVeg South Africa made headlines this year when it engaged in active public conversations with and helped to resist a proposed ban on the use of words like burger, sausage, and meatball in the packaging and marketing of plant-based meat alternatives. The bans are to be imposed by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALLRD). Similar actions by governments and meat industries are taking place worldwide and have collectively become known as the Veggie Burger Ban.
Read more on page 13
ProVeg South Africa's annual Plant-Based Heritage Day Braai became the biggest braai day event yet with over 500 attendees. This resulted in an informal world record for the biggest plant-based braai - the benchmark being that more than 1 000 plant-based burgers and sausages had to be consumed.
Read more on page 19
ProVeg South Africa's inaugural Diet Change Not Climate Change Environmental Film Festival doubled as the South African premier or worldrenowned environmental documentary Eating Our Way To Extinction, narrated by Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet.
Read more on page 18
The 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) was hosted on African soil in Egypt. ProVeg International was able to send Dr Nanine Wyma from the South African branch to attend and present preliminary research results on implementing plant-rich diets for diabetes in South Africa.
Read more on page 9
The ProVeg South Africa community comprises staff, volunteers, ambassadors, influencers, and other partners. We are passionate about plant-based and we are always looking to connect with people and organisations with similar values.
Team as of 31 December 2022:
Colleagues who moved on from ProVeg South Africa in 2022:
In 2022, ProVeg South Africa celebrated several promotions, and new hires, and also had to say goodbye to several colleagues.
Arleen Nel was promoted from Communications Coordinator to Communications Manager. Anusha Lakha was promoted from Corporate Engagement Assistant to Corporate Engagement & V-Label Coordinator. Rebeca Espin was rehired after her six-month internship as the Communications Intern to Events Assistant. Saneeya Domingo-Adams joined as Office Administrator and Yakira Naina as Corporate Engagement Intern.
Dr Nanine Wyma, our former Programmes Manager, moved to our international team to work on their Dietary Guidelines Initiative. Simamkele Nyembezi, our former Programmes Assistant, left to follow her dream of teaching English in South Korea. Gulam Mather, who initially joined the team for a short-term project, and who we were very grateful to have for longer, left to spend time abroad and focus on other commitments. Dylan Naylor was hired as an intern and went abroad to explore other opportunities after his internship. Kate Howell, our former Corporate Engagement Consultant, moved on from a part-time position at ProVeg South Africa to a full-time position in financial services.
Arleen Nel Communications Manager Country Director
DonovanWill Programmes Manager
DrNanineWyma
AnushaLakha Corporate Engagement & V-Label Coordinator
DylanNaylor Campaigns Intern
RebeccaEspin Events Assistant
Saneeya DomingoAdams Office Administrator
YakiraNaina Corporate EngagementIntern
GulamMather CorporateEngagement &FundraisingManager V-LabelAdministrator
CorporateEngagement Consultant
KateHowell Programmes Assistant
SimamkeleNyembezi
ProVeg South Africa volunteers were presented with several opportunities throughout 2022 to get involved in campaigns such as the Diet Change Not Climate Change Environmental Film Festival, The Plant-Based Heritage Day Braai, as well as several other activations and expos. Our volunteer network in Cape Town grew tremendously in 2022 and allowed for the first volunteer social event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic We hope to continue building its volunteer community while creating more enriching opportunities for volunteers to get involved in and host more social events for individuals to connect within the plant-based community.
Our Ambassadors are prominent voices and thought leaders in the plant-based community helping to educate and inspire the South African community to adopt a plant-based lifestyle Ambassadors also assist in promoting ProVeg campaigns, and events (both physical and digital) to grow the local plant-based community and make it more inclusive.
The work ProVeg South Africa does would not be possible without partnerships with many remarkable organisations. Our work has been with some of the best plant-based alternative brands, leading retailers, aligned NGOs, and supportive service providers. Listed below are some of the organisations we worked with or were supported by in 2022.
A special thanks to our pro-bono legal support:
Lawtons Africa's Pro Bono arm partnered with ProVeg South Africa during the course of the Veggie Burger Ban in South Africa, and with subsequent legal inquiries thereafter. The Head of Pro Bono and Citizenship, Sarah Goldman, and her team generously offered their time and insight into the process of interdicting and appealing the order to seize meat analogues in South Africa, as well as giving legal advice on several other issues.
We are very grateful for expert HR and employee legal support and advice from Lenja Dahms-Jansen and her team at Bowmans attorneys. From assistance with drafting employee contracts to legal advice, the input from Bowmans gives us the peace of mind that we are legally compliant regarding employee matters.
A special mention:
ProVeg South Africa Director, Donovan Will, attended VegMed, Europe's largest medical conference on plant-based nutrition, in 2018 and saw the need for more nutrition education and research relating to plant-based food in the medical and dietetics sector in South Africa. We were instrumental
in establishing a new NGO, the Physicians Association for Nutrition (PAN) South Africa, the first African branch of this international non-profit organisation, dedicated to working with health professionals, health science students, and policymakers to raise awareness of whole food plantbased nutrition for health promotion and disease prevention. We are very proud of the work PAN South Africa did in 2022.
PAN South Africa's pilot research project is a case study on a 21-day whole-food plant-based eating challenge among type 2 diabetics in South Africa, of which the preliminary research findings were presented at COP27.
The plant-based nutrition journal series is a free monthly email subscription that gives licensed South African healthcare professionals access to the latest research on nutrition, planetary health, and plant-based healthcare, as well as the opportunity to gain Continuing Professional Development points.
Halfway through 2022, PAN South Africa onboarded a Community Coordinator, Gabriela Lorenco, to kickstart PAN University in South Africa. They will be continuing the work of PAN University international which has a footprint in over 20 universities worldwide.
WATHASNIPPETOFA DOCUMENTARYABOUT THISSTUDYHEREProVeg International prides itself in dynamic campaigns that contribute to creating a world where everybody can choose healthy and delicious food that is good for all animals, humans, and the planet.
ProVeg South Africa runs several of the campaigns started by ProVeg International locally, but also has a host of campaigns and events unique to South Africa and the African context
As a part of our Diet Change Not Climate Change campaign, which is focused on raising awareness of the environmental impact of food choices, we engaged in a handful of activities.
On 25 March, we joined several other environmental activists in the city of Cape Town for the Global Climate Strike We brought banners with the #DietChangeNotClimateChange logo and chatted with many activists about how food choices impact the cause.
A few months later, we attended the launch of a plant-based menu, by HSI Africa's Green Monday initiative at University of Cape Town (UCT) residences where we hosted a presentation on the campaign and its key milestones since its launch.
To celebrate World Environment Day, we hosted ProVeg South Africa's first environmental film festival focusing on the link between food and climate change. More details on this are on page 18.
This year, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) was hosted on African soil in Egypt. Because of this, we were lucky enough to send one of our team members from the South African branch to attend COP, support the UN team, and share research results on the #Food4Climate pavilion stage. Nanine Wyma joined the UN advocacy team for the second week of COP27 and presented preliminary research results on implementing plant-rich diets for diabetes in South Africa.
“It’s clear that the health of all humans is intertwined with the health of animals and surrounding ecosystems,” said Wyma.
“Implementing a plant-rich diet is not only the most compassionate way of eating, but also reduces the risk of climate change and chronic disease. Illuminating the health co-benefits of our solutions provides additional motivation to take action. Our research clearly showed that there were enough health benefits for South African diabetics who ate plant-based diets to motivate for larger, more controlled research interventions.”
Veganuary is an annual challenge run by a UK non-profit organisation that promotes and educates about veganism by encouraging people to follow a vegan lifestyle for the month of January. Since the event began in 2014, participation has increased each year. ProVeg South Africa is the official local NGO partner for Veganuary.
Veganuary 2022 marked the second year of being the national partner for Veganuary in South Africa, and ProVeg South Africa obtained 70% of the sign-ups in the country. In partnership with local vegan influencer and advocate, Cape Town Vegan, several vegan dinner parties were hosted across the greater Cape Town area. The Johannesburg volunteer branch also hosted a dinner in the City of Gold.
Lexi's Healthy Eatery
Mary-Ann's Emporium
The Conscious Kitchen
Grumpy & Runt
Delta Café
Vegan Streetfood
Infinite Café
Blue Kiwi
The Fussy Vegan
Almost 180 tickets were sold for the Veganuary dinners and the campaign received more than 57 media mentions across print, digital, and broadcast media.
The ProVeg Veggie Challenge is a free 30-day challenge to try eating more plant-based. It’s better for your health, better for the planet, and better for animals. ProVeg assists you with daily emails containing free tips, recipes, and support.
Individuals can choose their 30-day challenge of choice. They can choose between a vegan, vegetarian, or reduced meat intake challenge. After signing up, individuals will receive daily emails with handy tips and recipes.
In 2022, more than 6 000 South Africans signed up for the Veggie Challenge. Over 30 000 South Africans have taken the challenge since its inception.
The Veggie Challenge can be access via desktop at www.veggiechallenge.co.za.
The Veggie Challenge App can be downloaded from Apple iStore and Google Play and boasts a host of handy features, including a recipe section, grocery lists and menu planners, helpful articles and reading progress tracker, an impact calculator as well as an animated tracking map to motivate you during the 30-day challenge.
The Veggie Burger Ban in South Africa began with a communique issued on 22 June 2022 by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD).
In the letter addressed to “All processors, importers and retailers of meat analogues”, DALRRD instructed that meat analogues “must not use the product names prescribed and reserved for processed meat products” under Regulation No.R.1283.
The letter also instructed the Food Safety Agency (Pty) Ltd, the assignee designated for the inspection of processed meat products, to seize and remove any plant-based products using names that traditionally refer to animal-based products in terms of section 8 (“Seizures”) of the Agricultural Product Standards Act 199 of 1990 (“the APS Act”).
The seizure was delayed by 30 days upon resistance to compliance from the industry.
In response to the Veggie Burger Ban, ProVeg South Africa engaged the industry and sent a joint letter on 30 June 2022, signed by 53 stakeholders stating that the regulation in question did not apply to meat analogue products and that the deadline was unreasonable
Immediately thereafter, ProVeg South Africa engaged the industry and sent a joint letter on 30 June 2022, signed by 53 stakeholders stating that the regulation in question did not apply to meat analogue products and that the deadline was unreasonable.
This letter was immediately rejected by DALRRD, which then prompted ProVeg South Africa to look into alternative methods of engagement with DALRRD including joining the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA), and engaging in legal support provided by Lawtons Africa’s Pro Bono wing.
After exploring all diplomatic options, the CGCSA ultimately had to ask the court to step in and applied for an interdict against the seizure notice. An interdict was granted by the Johannesburg High Court until 17 November, pending a review by DALRRD. On 17 November the interdict was extended to 8 May 2023.
Lawtons Africa Head of Pro Bono and Citizenship, Sarah Goldman, and ProVeg South Africa team member Anusha Lakha in front of the Johannesburg High Court where the interim interdict was issued.
Other policy work ProVeg South Africa has been involved in:
The draft game meat strategy, proposed by the government, involves converting 1 million hectares of South African community owned land into intensive game meat farming. We strongly opposed this strategy as it was poorly written and many claims were not referenced. We urged the department to consider the impact that the intensification of the game meat industry would have on the environment and climate change targets.
This was a well-written overarching policy aiming to conserve South African biodiversity. The policy indicated its intention to promote sustainable diets and lifestyles, so ProVeg South Africa provided considerations on why plant-based eating is a sustainable diet.
The publication of the Climate Change Bill, which was open for comment, had to do with delegating responsibilities across departments. ProVeg South Africa seized the opportunity to support the bill, provide clear standardised targets, and urge the government to consider agriculture's contribution to climate change.
ProVeg South Africa places great importance on its work with local and international media to spread awareness about the benefits of plant-based food to the largest possible audience. This is achieved through traditional PR work as well as digital campaigns on ProVeg South Africa’s various platforms, including social media channels, website, and newsletter database.
During 2022, ProVeg South Africa received more than 300 media mentions, of which 85 were what we consider to be A-rated mentions - coverage by some of South Africa's largest and most influential media publications or stations.
POTENTIAL REACH* IN 2022 FROM PR EFFORTS: 20 629 356
A big highlight for the Communications Department was ProVeg being featured on the unimpeachable local investigative journalism programme Carte Blanche during a segment on the Veggie Burger Ban in South Africa. Country Director, Donovan Will, was interviewed as a representative from the larger plant-based community. This interview was shown on both M-Net and YouTube and reached a combined audience of more than 175 000 viewers.
Our PR efforts were fundamental in securing media coverage with a combined reach of over 20 million. ProVeg South Africa was also interviewed and featured on these notable TV and radio stations, online news sites, and print publications:
ProVeg South Africa utilises social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to engage with the plant-based community, and share crucial information about the movement as well as educational material for both vegans and non-vegans.
12 700+ followers
28 000+ followers
1 100+ followers
ProVeg South Africa sends out monthly newsletters to more than 21 000 subscribers. These newsletters contain news about the plant-based food sector and the work ProVeg does, product reviews and helpful information, as well as exclusive recipes and competitions.
ProVeg South Africa supports and facilitates many events throughout the year to spread awareness of the ongoing climate crisis and how individual actions can contribute to mitigating climate change and get the public to taste great plant-based food. At the same time, ProVeg South Africa creates opportunities for community building by bringing people from different walks of life together to bond over the wide range of high-quality plant-based products available in South Africa.
Diet Change Not Climate Change is a global campaign by ProVeg International urging both the public and policymakers to reduce animal consumption and adopt plant-based food options as a climate change mitigation strategy.
Under this campaign, ProVeg South Africa hosted the Diet Change Not Climate Change Environmental Film Festival in Cape Town where six screenings of environmental documentaries were held. These eye-opening documentaries showcased how human food choices impact the environment. The film festival took place from 5 July to 4 August at the Labia Theatre in Gardens, Cape Town.
The headlining documentary was Eating Our Way To Extinction, narrated by Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet. This was also the South African premier of the brand new documentary.
This event also allowed ProVeg South Africa to showcase some of the high-quality plant-based products available in South Africa from brands like On the Green Side, Pesto Princess, Güdness, Urban Vegan, Fry’s Family Food Co., and Jamy’s Dessertery.
The film festival had over 300 attendees who expressed interest in future film festivals about topics such as animal protection, plant-based nutrition, and the influence of large food companies on the environment. An important success of this film festival was the impact it had on attendees’ perception of the impact of their food choices on the environment and their intent to change their daily food choices for the betterment of the environment.
In 2023, ProVeg South Africa plans to increase the size of the festival
To celebrate South Africa's Heritage Day (often referred to as Braai Day), ProVeg South Africa organised our annual plant-based braai event, called the Plant-Based Heritage Day Braai, to showcase the ease with which plant-based eating can be integrated into everyday activities and special occasions and how good it can taste.
In the past, the event has drawn crowds of up to 300 people. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no events held in 2020 and 2021. But in 2022, ProVeg South Africa hosted the biggest braai day event so far with over 500 attendees. This event also resulted in an informal world record for the most plant-based burgers and sausages to be eaten at a single braai or BBQ.
The 2022 Plant-Based Heritage Day Braai was hosted at Camps Bay High School’s B-Field, opposite the Glen Country Club and next to Maiden’s Cove. On the menu was a selection of several plant-based meat alternatives such as Beyond Meat’s breakfast sausage patties, Urban Vegan’s Prime Patties, Fry’s Big Fry Burger, and many more. There were also several gluten-free options available. A wide selection of salads, sides, and drinks accompanied these delicious plantbased burgers and boerie rolls, as well as an amazing selection of vegan desserts from Woolworths.
Event partners included Woolworths, Infinite Foods, Urban Vegan, Meatless Farm, The Fry’s Family Co., Oumph!, Outcast Foods, Veggiewors, Pesto Princess, Beyond Meat, Just Egg, B-Well, Marie Sharp’s Africa, Kauai, Nourish’d, Switched Energy Drinks, Soma, Okja, and Buchulife.
This is one of ProVeg South Africa’s most successful community-building events. It offers attendees a wide variety of plant-based foods, some plant-based alternatives to foods traditionally associated with the braai, at great value-for-money prices.
ProVeg South Africa organises and facilitates many activations and exhibitions, such as plantbased food sampling and speaking events. This gives the public an opportunity to try products that they would otherwise not try while learning about the benefits of a plant-based diet. Some of the exhibitions and activations ProVeg South Africa participated in this year included the Two Oceans Marathon Expo, The Plant-Powered Show, the University of Cape Town’s Sustainability Day, as well as sampling events at Nelson Mandela University, and North West University’s Potchefstroom campus. ProVeg South Africa was also able to participate in the Greenpop Reforest Festival hosted at the Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat outside Gansbaai.
A panel discussion on the Plant Powered Talks stage, hosted by ProVeg South Africa in partnership with Wellness Warehouse at the 2022 Plant Powered Show at the CTICC. The panel included Wellness Warehouse wellness experts and was mediated by ProVeg South Africa Country Director, Donovan Will.
Product sampling statistics for 2022:
6400nuggets+ OKJAmilksamples
ProVeg South Africa team members and volunteers at the ProVeg stand as part of the Two Oceans Marathon Expo 2022. Here they handed our thousands of samples to expo attendants
3000samplesofFry'sChicken StyleNuggetsandPulled Oumphwraps
1800nuggets|200Pulled Oumphsamples
3000nuggets|500PulledOumphwraps|3000 PulledOumphsamples|3200LikeMeatChicken Bitestoastedsandwiches
200MeatlessFarmmini burgersamples
Approximately1900productsweresampled, includingproductsfromOntheGreenside,Fry's LikeMeat,PulledOumph!,Gudness,Pesto Princess,ViolifeCheese,B-well,andJ'Amys
ProVeg helps food producers, retailers, and caterers to develop more plant-based products and make them more accessible. In turn, this allows organisations to financially benefit from the growing demand for plant-based options.
Most of the 2022 corporate partnerships were maintained and secured through ProVeg South Africa's research, campaigns, and events, as well as large newsworthy events such as the Veggie Burger Ban. These provided opportunities to reach out to brands and for them to get acquainted with ProVeg's work.
The campaigns and events that connected ProVeg South Africa to brands included Veganuary, Diet Change Not Climate Change, and the Plant-Based Heritage Day Braai, as well as sampling events, and expos. These activities allowed ProVeg South Africa to maintain its ongoing partnership with the Live Kindly Collective, including Fry’s, Oumph! and Like Meat, as well as Wellness Warehouse, OKJA, On the Green Side, Food Lover’s Market, Infinite Foods, Pesto Princess, B-well, Urban Vegan, The Vegan Chef, Red Espresso, and Güdness.
ProVeg continues to work with local companies by consulting them and creating marketing opportunities through events and expos.
ProVeg South Africa recently assessed the plant-based offerings available at South Africa’s top fast-food franchise restaurants for the period ending February 2022. In total, 23 fast-food franchise restaurants were assessed based on varied criteria, centred largely around the number of plantbased items available on their menus. This assessment forms a part of ProVeg International’s fastfood franchise outlets ranking that recurs in Europe and the United States of America.
This report unpacks the assessment and focuses predominantly on the performance of the top six plant-based friendly fast-food franchise restaurants in South Africa. It highlights some of their plant-based menu items and evaluates their overall contribution to the plant-based space. It also highlights brands that are lagging in their plant-based offerings.
Ultimately, the findings of the report suggest that the South African fast-food industry has made some strides in the plant-based space, but there is room for improvement to ensure South Africa keeps up with surging customer demand for kinder, healthier and more sustainable options. ProVeg uses this report to identify strategies to encourage food chains to increase their plantbased offerings.
V-Label is an internationally recognised, registered seal for labelling vegan and vegetarian products and services and is the world's leading vegan and vegetarian trademark.
It was established in Switzerland in 1996 and has since been a reliable, go-to consumer shopping guide. Across the globe, V-Label has more than 3 500 partners and over 40 000 licensed products.
ProVeg South Africa is the local administrator of the V-Label seal. V-Label was introduced to South Africa at the end of 2021 and, by the start of 2022, we had Burger King, Longridge Wines, and Boekenhoutskloof certified.
V-Label provides confidence, clarity, and guidance for consumers. Globally, consumers are increasingly looking for healthy, ethical, and cost-effective products with low environmental impact, driving the demand for vegan alternatives.
But, as manufacturers reflect the trend that more sustainable branding, packaging, and food content sells, it is that much harder to identify products that are actually vegan. Consumers increasingly rely on independent labelling such as V-Label, to help them identify vegan and vegetarian options quickly, confidently, and transparently.
V-Label plays a vital role in the plant-based context in South Africa given the lack of regulation relative to the plant-based industry.
Additionally, V-Label customers receive free product presentations on our local South African and international social media channels and gain access to V-Label’s vast network in the vegan market.
T CERTIFIED TH V-LABEL UTH AFRICA
Vegan Nuggets
Vegan Royale
Vegan Nuggets Combo Meal
Vegan Royale Combo Meal
Boekenhoutskloof
The Chocolate Blend | Porcupine Ridge Chenin Blanc | Porcupine Ridge Rose | Porcupine Ridge Merlot |
Porcupine Ridge Syrah | Vinologist Chenin Blanc | Vintager Chenin Blanc | Vinologist Sauvignon Blanc |
Vintager Sauvignon Blanc | Cap Maritime Chardonnay | The Wolftrap Rose | Porcupine Ridge Ridge
Chardonnay | Wolftrap White | Wolftrap Red | Porcupine Ridge | Cabernet Sauvignon/ Merlot | Vinologist
Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon | Vinologist Swartland Syrah | Patina Chenin Blanc | Porcupine Ridge
Cabernet Sauvignon | Porcupine Ridge Sauvignon Blanc | Vinologist Organic Sauvignon Blanc | Winemaker
Series The Red | The Journeyman | Vinologist Swartland Rose | Wolftrap Grenache Blanc | Wolftrap Shiraz | Porcupine Ridge Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon | Wolftrap Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon | Franschhoek Cabernet
Sauvignon | Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon | Semillon | Syrah
Longridge Wine Estate
Germanier South Africa
Longridge Cabernet Sauvignon
Longridge Chardonnay
Longridge Chenin Blanc
Longridge Merlot
Longridge Pinotage
Longridge The Emily Cuvee Classique Nv
Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Shiraz
Sauvignon Blanc Semillon
Rose
Shiraz Mourvedre Viognier
Chardonnay
Pinotage
The last five years have seen exponential growth with the number of plant-based options freely available in South Africa, as well as a huge increase in awareness of the benefits of plant-based diets. Despite this, sales of animal products continue to rise, and it is clear that there is still so much to be done in all elements of the food system in order to create significant change.
We need better government policies, bigger public awareness campaigns, more exposure in mainstream media, more food manufacturers working on perfecting plant-based alternatives at more affordable prices, more retailers and restaurants offering more and better plant-based options, more research on consumer behaviour and attitudes towards plant-based food, more medical and nutrition professionals telling patients about the health benefits of wholefood plant-based diets, and more environmentalists focusing on the impact that animal agriculture has on the environment.
While globally ProVeg International has programmes supporting efforts to address all of these needs, locally ProVeg South Africa must be realistic about our current capacity and focus on the ones that we believe we can have the largest impact on.
In 2023, ProVeg South Africa will focus on:
Bigger public awareness campaigns, centred around our Eco Film Festival and Plant-Based Heritage Day Braai, as well as our ongoing Veggie Challenge programme and support for Veganuary,
Better government policies through work to set up a plant-based alliance of stakeholders in the plant-based food sector, More exposure in mainstream media through growing our ongoing media work, More restaurants offering more and better plant-based options through working with South Africa’s largest QSRs by providing a landscape review of plant-based options through our PlantBased Fast Food Ranking and providing consulting and marketing services, Getting more environmentalists to focus on the impact that animal agriculture has on the environment through our Diet Change Not Climate Change work.
ProVeg South Africa’s current operations are primarily funded by a grant from ProVeg International, and the specific funds we receive come from generous donors who support ProVeg’s work. Although we are working on programmes that generate income to grow our capacity, including our V-Label licensing program, running events, and working with food companies and retailers, the quickest way to expand our efforts is through partnerships, volunteered time, or financial donations. We ask that individuals who would like to support our work consider volunteering for ProVeg or making a financial contribution.
We would specifically like to expand our work to include more government policy work, research, and working with large food manufacturers to remove animal products from their recipes or to launch new alternative products. If you would like to see more work in this space or would like to support our other work in any way, please email our Country Director, Donovan Will, at donovan.will@proveg.com.
We look forward to working with our partners on bigger and better projects in 2023.
Our vision is a world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet.
Do you want to join us and make that possible?
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