PepsiCo and Beyond Meat's joint venture will reportedly launch a plant-based jerky

Beyond Meat and PepsiCo’s joint venture is planning to launch a plant-based jerky as its first product, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Beyond and Pepsi announced the joint venture, called The PLANeT Partnership, nearly a year ago with the goal of creating plant-based snacks and drinks together. The partnership gives Beyond, a relative newcomer to the food world, a chance to leverage Pepsi’s production and marketing expertise for new products. For its part, Pepsi can deepen its investment in plant-based categories — which are growing increasingly crowded — while working with one of the top creators of meat substitutes. It also helps Pepsi work toward its sustainability and health goals for its portfolio.

Pepsi CEO Ramon Laguarta said in September that the company is targeting early 2022 for the launch of the first product from the partnership. Pepsi veteran Dan Moisan has been tapped as chief executive for the venture.

A photo of the sample product published by Bloomberg showed packaging declaring that the jerky didn’t contain soy, gluten or genetically modified organisms but did contain 10 grams of plant protein per serving. Beyond and Pepsi declined to comment on the report.

The two companies will face some competition in the vegan jerky market. Conagra Brands’ Gardein already sells it, as well as a number of smaller startups.

Shares of Beyond were down slightly in extended trading, while Pepsi’s stock was unchanged. Beyond’s stock has slid 54% over the last 12 months as Wall Street questioned its growth prospects and supply chain issues hit sales. Pepsi’s stock, on the other hand, has risen 23% in the same time, giving it a market value of $242 billion, about 59 times that of Beyond.

Read more about the joint venture’s plans here.