Are meat industry outbreaks helping vegan appeal?
Concerns about contamination by coronavirus has hit the global meatpacking industry over the last few months, and Germany has felt it among the hardest.
Where outbreaks at local slaughterhouses may actually speed up a trend there for consumers to look for high priced meat or vegetarian and vegan substitutes.
That's according to one market research firm Reuters spoke with.
Robert Kecskes is an analyst with GFK.
"We see that the trend towards meat replacement products and also towards higher quality meat continues. We had that before the coronavirus. It is definitely decreasing and veggie is increasing, that is, vegetarian meat products, even more than 50%, even in the coronavirus months."
Many Germans, like Katharina Monti, were already buying better quality meat due to concerns for how animals are treated during the farming process and health reasons.
"Yes, it is deliberate, because the quality of the meat is important to me and I don't want to just buy such a mass-produced meat for myself and the family. It is for the benefit of the children and the family, but also for the benefit of the animal."
GFK, the research firm, says the number of vegetarians in Germany had also doubled over the last five years to around 7% of the population.
Outbreaks in German meat packing plants drew the public's attention to the industry's use of subcontracted workers from eastern Europe, who often live in cramped accommodation.
1,500 employees at a slaughterhouse in the city Guetersloh tested positive last month.
That forced 600,000 around the city back into lockdown on June 23.
