Invest-NL brings Dutch agrifood leaders together to break bottlenecks in the protein transition

The shift toward more sustainable protein sources had long been seen as a technological challenge. Yet according to new research published by Invest-NL and Goodberries, the greatest barriers to progress lay not in the lab but in the supply chain. The findings, supported by perspectives from major agrifood companies and startups, showed that even mature innovations often failed to reach the market because key partners connected too late, or not at all. This made the path from pilot to production slow, fragmented, and financially risky.

Invest-NL’s analysis, carried out in collaboration with Goodberries, drew on interviews with established companies including Royal Cosun, Royal Smilde Foods, Colruyt Group, Bieze Food Group, Enrico Food, Compass Group, Menken Orlando, and Lidl, as well as investors such as Shift Invest and Squarefield, and newer ecosystem players including Those Vegan Cowboys. Their insights pointed to a shared frustration: while the ambition to grow the plant-based and alternative protein sector was high, cooperation across the chain remained fragile.

The central challenge identified in the research was the gap between technological readiness and commercial adoption. The technology needed to support the protein transition already existed across many product categories, but scaling required alignment on pricing, volumes, quality specifications, and retail or foodservice market access. These agreements only developed through early and active collaboration, something many companies said was still lacking. As Invest-NL’s report made clear, commercialisation lagged “because collaboration was not getting off the ground sufficiently.”

A roundtable convened on 31 October brought together many of the organizations interviewed to test whether these bottlenecks reflected the broader experience of the sector. Participants agreed that promising innovations often faltered not because they failed technical validation, but because startups and corporates struggled to find the right structure for working together. For startups, accessing a corporate partner could be slow and unclear; for corporates, early-stage ventures frequently lacked sufficient knowledge about logistics, production requirements, food safety frameworks, and consumer behavior.

Startups told researchers that they often faced long decision cycles and opaque internal processes when approaching large companies. Corporates, in turn, reported that many early-stage ventures underestimated what was required to scale a product, and that a “lack of supply-chain knowledge” remained one of the biggest obstacles in collaboration.

These dynamics were not limited to theory. The companion case study published by Invest-NL, featuring The Seaweed Company and the Belgian retailer Colruyt Group, offered an on-the-ground illustration of how a venture–corporate partnership could succeed only through clear focus, active intervention, and structured alignment over time.

In the case study, Finian Moore of The Seaweed Company reflected on the company’s mission to bring seaweed into mainstream diets, from hybrid meat applications to standalone products such as seaweed croquettes. “We want to normalise the idea of seaweed on our plates,” he said, noting its minimal environmental footprint and relevance to the protein transition.

Colruyt Group, which had longstanding sustainability goals across health, society, animal welfare, and the environment, first invested in the company in 2019 and eventually took a majority stake. But getting to a viable commercial strategy required significant restructuring. As adviser Johan de Schepper explained, too many ambitions were being pursued at once, from global seaweed cultivation to agricultural biostimulants and retail products. “It all cost so much money that at a certain point even bankruptcy was looming,” he said. The solution was a narrowed strategic focus, centered on food applications and strict prioritisation.

The partnership demonstrated what many corporates said was missing in the wider protein transition: early clarity on market needs, commercial pathways, and operational feasibility. Colruyt’s retail experience provided the reality check required to align product development with demand. As De Schepper put it, “The retail world is tough and complex; ultimately you have to get onto supermarket shelves.” Startups might bring energy and ideas, he added, but turning these into scalable products “usually requires different skills and knowledge.”

Invest-NL’s broader research identified four themes that offered opportunities to accelerate the protein transition if addressed collectively. The first was winning consumer acceptance beyond climate framing, with a greater emphasis on taste, affordability, and health. The second was improving alignment among developers, producers, and retailers to bring taste, price, and quality into balance. A third was initiating communication across the supply chain earlier, so startups gained a clearer picture of what it took to scale, from logistics to regulation. And finally, there was a need for financing models that distributed risk more evenly across ventures, corporates, and public funders.

To turn these insights into action, Invest-NL worked on forming a “coalition of the willing”: a group of Dutch agrifood companies committed to addressing structural supply chain barriers together. The coalition focused on joint chain projects where startups and corporates co-developed new products or markets, alongside programs that connected partners earlier and shortened the path to commercialisation.

The Seaweed Company and Colruyt Group’s experience showed how such collaboration could help transform promising concepts into viable products. As Moore noted, progress required persistence as well as partnership: “You need a stubborn kind of passion to keep pushing a concept forward despite all the obstacles and challenges.”

Together, the research and case study illustrated a common message: the protein transition would advance fastest not through isolated breakthroughs, but through shared learning, structured cooperation, and collective responsibility across the supply chain.