The latest meat, fish and poultry market report (MFP) from Kantar confirms how a late Easter, as well as Mother’s Day falling outside of the period, has contributed to slower growth of red meat, whilst chicken and pork performed well.
Volumes are down across the board, with primary and processed meats suffering a volume decline after a positive performance in the year, according to Kantar Research.
Nathan Ward, business unit director, MFP, explains: “Easter and Mother’s Day are vital to volumes in roasts and, with the timing of Easter this year, we are seeing some large declines in roast joints, especially lamb which remains a really important market at Easter.
“Chicken and pork remain strong performers despite the Easter phasing, with pork seeing strong growth continuing. Pork’s growth has been driven by bigger baskets and a strong performance from pork shoulders and marinades.”
Chicken continues to see a strong performance based on breasts (+3%) and legs (+7%), and leg promotions are up 25% year on year.
The base of all growth for chicken is coming from it being present in more baskets, adding 955,000 trips on top of last year.
Ward adds: “Bacon continues to struggle to drive any growth with 419,000 fewer shoppers compared to last year. Lost shoppers aren’t the only issue for bacon, with the market also seeing 4.5 million fewer trips.
“Bacon is experiencing less volume on promotion, with promoted volumes down 11% as we see 29% less sales on price and price cut.
“All demographic groups are declining for bacon, with older households, particularly those with older dependents driving the decline. The other processed categories are all seeing volumes grow, but value is down as prices fall in all the categories.”
Kantar explains that current uncertainty is changing our shopping habits, however it suggests that the late Easter may stimulate sales over the next month and see a turnaround in performance for red meat.
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.
