Waitrose recently revealed that sales of its festive vegan range were up 40% on the previous year and, for the first time ever, sales of its vegan ready meals had overtaken its vegetarian offerings.

Following on from its strong Christmas sales, the retailer has seen a rise in the number of vegan products sold thanks to Veganuary, revealing that the Veganuary popularity has carried on through into February, with sales of vegan products up 13% compared to last year.

Waitrose offers a wide range of vegan ingredients and ready-made meals in its plant-based range, but it’s mushrooms that have proved most popular with customers with Waitrose’s Vegan BBQ Mushrooms with Sticky Rice selling double the number expected by the company.

Jane Shaw, Mushroom Buyer at Waitrose & Partners, said: “As customers look to be more experimental and add interest and additional flavours to their vegan dishes, we’ve seen sales of our exotic mushrooms rise 16% compared to last year. We’re also seeing more shoppers opting for chestnut mushrooms, with sales up 7%.”

The retailer is keen to capitalise on this growth in 2020 by doubling the number of plant-based products in stores.

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