Easter trade impacted by cost-of-living increases
This year’s consumer spend on Easter staples, such as lamb roasting joints, was down on 2021 levels, due in part to rising inflation.
According to new figures released by the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB), grocery performance for Easter 2022 struggled to annualise as there were less in-home occasions, with volumes down 8.8% year-on-year. However, with the eating out market still recovering, AHDB report slight growth in retail compared to 2019, up 1.4%.
The latest figures indicate that Easter this year was influenced by the increased cost-of-living, including rising prices in stores and consumers having less disposable income. Inflationary pressure hit 5.9% in the four weeks ending 17th April 2022, which impacted people’s ability to celebrate.
In the two weeks to Easter 2022, nine million kg of roasting joints were sold through retail, down 19.2% year-on-year. Longer term, the category also saw declines, down 18.2% versus 2019, when roasting took a back seat to BBQs.
Price inflation is seen across roasting offerings, having a negative impact on the number of shoppers who bought red meat. Lamb, the most traditional Easter roast (21% share of roast volumes in 2022 compared to 6% share for rest of year), saw the biggest increase in price and the fastest volume losses. In comparison pork roasting saw the smallest increase in price and the slowest volume losses.
AHDB estimates that 57% of lamb losses were from shoppers leaving the roasting category completely and 12% through shoppers switching to other, cheaper, protein options – most notably chicken. With chicken being particularly popular among younger consumers.
Lamb has the highest price point of any meat roasting in the market, at £10.31/kg, roughly £4 more than the market average. Lamb also sees an inflation rate of 11.5% year-on-year compared to the average of 9.7%.
BBQ and meat-free
Despite being affected by slightly better weather in 2022, compared to 2021, the BBQ market was in decline with burger and sausage volumes down 9.5%.
Compared to the pre-covid 2019 period, volumes were also down by 1.6%, however AHDB point out that this is unsurprising due to record breaking weather experienced in 2019.
Inflation is also apparent in this category, with price per kg up 10.7% versus 2019 which equated to an additional £3.5 million spend during this Easter 2022.
Meat-free also saw a decline year-on-year, down 1.8% versus 2021, reversing the trend of significant volume growth at Easter across the last 3 years. The report suggests that price rises for meat-free may have influenced shoppers to reduce the volume they buy, or drop out of the category, driving recent declines.
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