As consumers increasingly have an appetite for them, plant-based food brands are acquiring a taste for licensing.

The global plant-based food market is forecast to increase revenue 14% annually through 2028 (reaching $78.9 billion) and while many companies are currently more focused on increasing their own business rather than licensing out their brands or ingredients, the first signs of it are taking root. Many of those first steps are being taken with ingredient licenses.

For example, Benson Hill, which develops Ultra High Protein (UHP) soybeans, recently signed a multi-year ingredients license with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). ADM will process and commercialize the soybeans making them available for plant-based meats, the first of which is likely to emerge in 2023. And that’s in addition to Benson supplying UHP soybeans for Kellogg’s Morningstar Farms products that will launch this fall, Melanie Bernds, director of communications at Benson Hills, said last week at the Plant-Based World Expo in New York.  Benson and ADM haven’t disclosed many details of the deal other than there will be co-branding, the soybean crops are being planted this fall and ADM also made an investment in the company. The royalty in ingredients-based licenses is typically 1-3%, licensing executives said.

At same time, PepsiCo and Beyond Meat launched pea- and mung bean-based teriyaki jerky earlier this year and shiitake mushroom developer Fable Food is working with a manufacturer to launch a burrito through Whole Foods in January. Meanwhile, Blackbird is expanding distribution of its wheat-based pizza – it has been selling it through 82 Whole Foods stores – to 307 Target locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, and North Carolina, said Gavin Konkel, director of sales at Fable.

“Licensing is still a little bit further out for most companies but maybe with Impossible (Foods) or Beyond Meat it will take hold,” said Ryan Reynolds, a former plant-based food buyer at Target and founder of the consulting agency Retail Optics. But as this evolves and the brands get bigger there will be an opportunity, especially in categories like alternative milk,” where brands like Oatly and Danone North America’s Silk Almondmilk are well established.

Among the most established categories for plant-based products are meat and dairy and there’s been a push to integrate them at retail with non-plant items.  That’s largely occurred in dairy, but still needs work in sections like seafood, and many retailers group plant-based in the health food section, industry executives said. At the same time, retailers are expanding their private label assortment to include plant-based. Target’s Good & Gather has been applied to mozzarella plant-based cheese style shreds that are made with coconut oil and potato protein.

“Private label will be something retailers look at more and more” for plant-based products because “while it may be less exciting than a big brand, it creates economies of scale and there are a lot of advantages to building out that part of your business,” Reynolds said.

A sure sign that plant-based is taking hold is food service, where fast-food chains have added it to their menus. Panda Express is returning Beyond Meat’s Beyond The Original Orange Chicken to its menu in building on the 70 locations that carried it last October. Meanwhile, Disney Cruise Lines introduced its first vegan menu aboard the new Disney Wish ship in July,  including dishes like Moroccan-Spiced Roasted Kabocha & Butternut Squash, and Buena Vista Soft Shell Tacos. And plant-based companies have become a favored investment for celebrities and chefs. Vegan chef Matthew Kenney partnered with Gold Platter Foods CEO Scott Bennett to create PlantMade Foods, which has developed more than 30 plant-based meals for online ordering and shipping. And Fable recently completed a $25 million funding round,

“The global trends of food security and sustainability are driving significant and ongoing demand growth for alternative proteins,” said Leticia Gonçalves, ADM’s president of Global Foods.