Lab Grown Chicken Economics

Photo by Rachel Cheatham

Currently lab grown meat can only be purchased in Singapore at a private club. I’ve traveled to Singapore twice so far (pre-COVID) for my consulting work, though I was not in any swanky clubs or restaurants. Rather, I frequented as many hawker stalls as humanly possible each trip. I particularly enjoyed how entire city streets would be closed in the evening for dining outside (like the one I snapped a pic of here). Let me tell you the food was ahhh-mazing. Skewered meat aside, I could probably live on bowls of laksa alone. And yes, I know I should be headed to Malaysia for a more proper laksa, or so I’ve been told by my Malaysian friends.

More to the point here though is a story of basic chicken economics. That private-club-chicken entrée for sale includes four lab-grown chicken nuggets and costs 23 dollars. Apparently, back in 2019, just one of those lab grown wonder nuggets rang in at about 90 dollars to produce.

The first question is will consumers globally accept lab grown chicken nuggets? And the follow-on question is when will enough consumers say yes to the first question to reach economies of scale and allow prices to drop?

I should add I don’t eat real chicken or plant chickn’ so I have no nuggets in this game. I would just like to understand what you think because I know many people do enjoy eating chicken!

Leave a comment below or join the convo over here.