Fresh primary meat and poultry has moved into growth after a few difficult months, according to researcher Kantar Worldpanel.
The latest grocery market share figures covering the 12 weeks to 4th November show that meat and poultry value sales have increased by 2.6%, with pork being the overall winner.
Much of the grocery growth has come through smaller ‘top up’ shopping trips by consumers, which increased at twice the rate of larger trolley shops over the period.
Red meat volumes continue to see decline when it comes to beef, but lamb’s volume decline has slowed and pork has returned to volume growth – driven by 419,000 more trips compared to last year.
The key cuts driving this are pork steaks and shoulder joints – up 14% and 34% respectively – as a result of greater use of promotions and the change of season.
Pork also continues to win in volume overall, as the key protein dominating the more processed categories of bacon and sausages.
Nathan Ward, business unit director, MFP, explains: “Primary meat and poultry are the key areas seeing growth, with pork, chicken and turkey driving the meat and poultry category.
“Lamb has seen a surge in popularity as leg joints (up 19%), steaks (up 6%) and stewing cuts (up 6%) see volume growth, but even with these categories growing we are seeing and overall volume decline with 1.15m fewer trips for lamb compared to last year.
“Chicken remains the strong performer of the big four proteins with 3.8m more trips to the category, with whole birds returning to growth alongside breasts, legs and wings.”
With only one more update before Christmas, Kantar predicts that the demand for turkey will be high in the next grocery market share figures.
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.
