The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has released its latest Porkwatch survey, reporting a higher proportion of British pork and sausage products on shelves than last year.
The survey, which looked at the performance of pork and pigmeat during the month of March, showed a lower proportion of British bacon and ham being stocked in UK retailers than in March 2023. Numbers of pork and sausage products on the shelves increased.
A total of 10 retailers were surveyed, with AHDB reporting that the proportion of fresh British pork on display in March remained unchanged from January at 88%, but was up from 86% in March 2022.
Among the retailers displaying 100% British pork on their shelves was Aldi, Co-op, Lidl, Morrisons and Sainsbury's. Waitrose had a total of 96% British pork on its shelves, but 100% of its own-label pork products were British. Tesco was reportedly slightly up on January and a year ago at 78%, while Asda recorded 66%, down from 69% in January. Iceland had 2% British pork on display.
Bacon
In total, 52% of bacon on display was British, unchanged from January but down from 55% in March 2023.
AHDB said that Co-op and M&S were the only retailers to record 100% British bacon, with Waitrose on 92% (100% of its own-label being British) and Sainsbury's on 79%. Morrisons was the only other retailer over 50% with 51% of its bacon products being British, while Tesco (34%), Asda (26%), Aldi (19%), Lidl (16%) and Iceland (12%) all displayed a low proportion of British bacon.
Sausages
Looking at sausages, AHDB said that 78% of those on display were British, up 2% on the 76% figure from January.
M&S had 99% British sausage products, and joined Aldi (98%), Waitrose (96%, own-label 100%) and Lidl (92%) as some of the best performers. Sainsbury's (77%) and Tesco (75%) were not far behind, with Morrisons (71%), Asda (70%) and Co-op (69%, own-label 100%) in a similar range.
Ham
The amount of British ham on display was down on the 67% recorded in March 2023, as a reported 62% of ham products on shelves in March 2024 were British.
M&S had the most British ham, boasting a figure of 99%. Co-op had 96% and Waitrose had 90%, while Sainsbury's (83%), Aldi (77%) and Tesco (61%) were close behind.
"Overall, the latest survey does not show a great deal of change on January, and, despite current low throughputs and subdued demand, support for British products remains largely positive.
"We thank those retailers that continue to support British pig producers, particularly in the fresh pork category, although, as always, there are some retailers that could do better."
Lizzie Wilson, chief executive of the National Pig Association.
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.
