Berliners are saying bye-bye to the bovine. Data from grocery delivery platform Flink has revealed the true extent of Berliners’ love for cow's milk alternatives of the nut and grain variety.

Berliners abandon cow's milk

According to data collected by grocery delivery company Flink, the majority of their customers in Berlin prefer oat and soya alternatives to cow's milk. Flink is one of a multitude of online grocery companies which operate in Berlin, a business which boomed during restrictions enforced to curtail the spread of coronavirus.

The startup announced that 59 percent of the orders that they receive for their “Milk and Milk Alternative” products are plant based milk products. Within the capital, it is customers in the northern district of Prenzlauer Berg, which is often associated with affluent young families, that love dairy-free alternatives the most. But Flink’s Berlin data is skewed by the fact that the company only delivers within Berlin’s S-Bahn ring, and in the districts of Wittenau, Marienfelde and Köpenick.

Flink’s Berlin customers adore the alternative options more than any other German city that the company operates in, with customers in Hamburg coming second and ordering the dairy-free options 51 percent of the time. In comparison to their European neighbours, Germans also seem to be ahead of the curve, with the international company reporting that only 15 percent of milk orders in France are for products of the non-Bovine variety.

Veganism and vegetarianism boom in Germany

The trend among Berliners and Hamburgers represents a growing shift towards vegetarianism and veganism in a country closely associated with its heavy consumption of animal products. Many German supermarkets spent 2021 developing competitive ranges of own-brand vegan products.

The trend continued in 2022 when a study by the Federal Association of the German Food Industry found that one in five new products were vegan.

The year also saw a number of vegan versions of German traditional dishes debut at Oktoberfest and the city of Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg decide to serve exclusively vegetarian cafeteria food in schools and nurseries.