According to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), shoppers may be more likely to purchase "cheaper meats" like gammon and chicken over the traditional turkey this Christmas.
The AHDB has predicted that due to cost-of-living concerns, consumers will be "making sacrifices in their Christmas dinners" to save money during the festive season.
AHDB retail insight manager, Grace Randall, said: "Shoppers continue to be swayed by good deals and we expect this to continue for festive favourites. Supermarkets always have big promotions around Christmas time, and the ones choosing to offer the greatest discounts this year should expect the most popularity, while butchers and those offering premium, more expensive products may suffer."
In its predictions, AHDB stated that shoppers would shift from turkeys to gammon or chicken, with data from IGD showing that 56% of UK shoppers who celebrated Christmas in 2022 had turkey as part of the Christmas meal, down from 60% in 2021 and predicted to decline further this year. A further 75% of customers said in a YouGov survey that price has become a more important factor for them when choosing meat over the last year.
Randall continued: "All the trimmings may be a thing of the past, with some shoppers predicted to have to choose between perceived 'non-essential' options like stuffing and pigs in blankets, instead of getting both. However, more affluent shoppers will likely still have a 'more the merrier' in the trolley attitude. Kantar data also suggested that more people may be attempting to make their own pigs in blankets, with sausage sales soaring around the festive season."
It predicted that Friday 22nd December will be the busiest grocery shopping day of the year, as shoppers may not purchase holiday party food as early as in previous years.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
