The Czech Republic ranks among most vegan and veggie-friendly places in Europe

According to a new ranking, the number of veggie-friendly restaurants is higher than most compared with population size

Tom Lane

Written by Tom Lane Published on 08.12.2020 16:08:00 (updated on 08.12.2020) Reading time: 2 minutes

Sirloin with dumplings and beef goulash often come to mind when you consider traditional Czech cuisine, but a new study suggests the Czech Republic is one of the most vegetarian and vegan-friendly countries in Europe.

Plant-based supplement company Mint looked into data from vegetarian food app Happycow to compare how many vegan and vegetarian restaurants there were compared to the population size of each European country.

The Czech Republic finished third behind Portugal and Iceland, with 232 vegetarian restaurants in the country, around 21.6 per million people.

The data was compared to a similar table from 2016 and showed that there has been a 58 percent increase in vegan or veggie restaurants in the country over the past four years.

Other countries in the top five include the UK and Luxembourg.

The report says that the Czech Republic being ranked so highly is a “surprise” because “as [they] move east along the European map [they saw] fewer veggie-friendly countries. The Czech Republic bucks this trend.”

According to Czech Statistic Office, data from Q3 of 2020 shows that meat production in the Czech Republic increased by just over 1.5 percent year-on-year to 114,103 tonnes. Meanwhile, according to a statistical survey by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, there was a near 4 percent increase in the amount of milk collected by domestic producers in that time, totalling 775,736 thousand litres of milk.

Reacting to the study, a spokesperson for the Česká veganská společnost (Czech vegan society) said:

"As the survey indicates the market situation has improved significantly in the past years. I dare say that to some extent we have caught up with countries from the west (UK, Germany, …).

"There is of course a difference when it comes to offer in bigger cities such as Prague and smaller towns, where for example, plant-based food on restaurants menu can still be tricky to find."

"Nowadays, all the big retailers like Tesco, Albert and others have increased their offer and are making it easier for people who are following a plant-based diet fully or for different reasons are reducing their animal-based product consumption."

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