Pork was a sales winner in the run-up to Easter, performing strongly alongside fish and chicken while beef sales held steady and lamb declined sharply, according to AHDB Pork.
The positive pork performance was achieved within a total red meat market worth £310 million over the four weeks prior to Easter. This total value was still 4% down, however, on the same pre-Easter stretch in 2015, based on figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
While the roasting joint market (across all meats) declined in volume by 4%, year on year, during the report period, the main contributor to the downturn was lamb, with beef and pork joints seeing some growth in volume, but not in value.
“Pork roasting joint successes pushed pork into overall volume growth for the four weeks,” said AHDB Pork.
“Shoulder sales drove activity in the first fortnight of the four-week period, a factor which could be linked to promotional activity, with the latest pulled pork campaign running at that time. Then in the fortnight immediately before Easter, pork leg joints drove sales, helped by increased price promotions.”