On the tail end of Easter, the latest Kantar Meat, Fish and Poultry (MFP) market update reports the sector did not experience the expected uplift. Volumes were fairly flat in most markets.
In the 12 weeks to 21/04/2019, Kantar's report shows that beef and lamb are suffering strong volume losses year on year. Lamb was present in 1.24 million fewer baskets and saw a loss of 622,000 shoppers, with leg and shoulder roasts contributing a similar level of decline.
Nathan Ward, business unit director, MFP, explains: “Shoppers may have indulged, but it wasn’t on the traditional roast, with volumes down over the Easter week. It might be expected that the great weather over Easter would have resulted in more BBQs, but value and volumes were down in the processed markets where we often see an uplift.”
Roasting value saw a loss of -2.5% and volumes down -5.4% in the last week of Easter compared to the comparable week last year. This is a huge hit for the category with beef and lamb affected most.
However, Ward continues: “It isn’t all bad news though, with just over a third of shoppers still buying lamb over the period and spending on average £16.45 each. The decline of beef is a more worrying prospect as it is over three times bigger.
“Beef has been in 1.96 million fewer baskets this year, almost all of this (1.9 million) due to roasting alone. Older and less affluent shoppers drove the decline, with older dependents, empty nesters, and retired shoppers the key demographics losing trips.”
Pork
Pork has bucked the trend adding 630,000 trips and 158,000 shoppers, with pork shoulder performing strongly with volume up 33% compared to last year.
Poultry
Ward continues: “Poultry has performed well over the period, with turkey seeing a strong Easter performance. Turkey added 690,000 trips compared to last year and has done well as a centrepiece for a large meal with crowns (+190%) and rolls (+15%) driving the volume growth for the protein.
“Chicken reigns supreme in the category, dominating volumes and remaining key to growth. As in previous updates, it isn’t the roasting element which is driving growth, with the everyday versatile cuts still the engines of volume growth with breast (+5.6%) and legs (+8.8%) the most popular cuts.”
This has all helped chicken to achieve 1.92 million more trips and add 315,000 more shoppers.
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.
