Gammon sales soared over the festive period, with leading food producer Pilgrim’s UK delivering more than four million pork products to British retailers, including almost 1.6 million fresh gammon joints.
Overall, retailers experienced a 5.1% uplift in volume (kg) sales and a 23.6% increase in value sales YoY of fresh gammon products in the four weeks to 25th December as shoppers switched to alternative centrepieces at Christmas.
Fresh primary gammon also increased its volume share (kg) of the wider protein category by 5.5% YoY up to 9.4%.
This standout performance is part of an ongoing decline in the amount of turkey consumed at Christmas, down from 10% to 7% over the last five years. Its share of volume (kg) also fell by 15.6% in the four weeks to Christmas Day 2022, compared to the same period in 2021.
This year has been further impacted by bird flu reducing the availability of fresh turkey, coupled with consumers recognising the value and versatility of pork, in particular gammon joints.
Rachel Griffiths, chief commercial officer at Pilgrim’s UK, said: “There’s been an ongoing shift in consumer preference away from turkey towards alternatives like pork, which was especially evident this Christmas and compounded by the rising cost-of-living and turkey shortages.
“Consumers switched to more cost-effective pork products, such as gammon joints, to be the star of the show for their Christmas dinner centrepieces, increasing in volume sales by 5.1% compared to last year. It’s versatility, simple and more energy efficient cooking method and absolutely delicious taste further solidified its place as a key festive staple.
“Our dedicated teams started production early to meet this demand for pork products producing almost 1.6 million high quality gammon joints and more than 157,000 pork crackling joints to ensure our retail customers were well stocked for the festive period.”
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.
