Total retail pork sales volumes grew by nearly 4% year-on-year over the Christmas period, led by a 17% increase in roasting joints.
Overall, 2023 saw a record-breaking Christmas week for grocery sales, with £4.8bn spent, an increase of 4% year-on-year (w/e 23 December 2023, NIQ Homescan Panel) and a record £13.7bn spent during the month of December (4w/e 24 December 2023, Kantar).
AHDB dsescribed it as a ‘Christmas cracker’ for meat sales, with spend on total meat, fish and poultry (MFP) growing by 11.6% and volumes up 6.4% YoY during the two week run up to Christmas day. Across the red meat category, total volumes for each protein performed well, and with cost pressures still at the forefront of consumer’s minds, it was surprising to see demand for all the trimmings increase YoY, with chilled gravy volumes up 11% over this period (Kantar), SHDB said.
Turkey was still the UK’s favourite roasting joint at Christmas with 56% of shoppers preparing it according to IGD, and despite its higher average price, total beef volumes grew, and total lamb saw a 17.3% YoY rise in volumes, which all came from fresh lamb, specifically roasting joints.
Pork was the only red meat to have lost shoppers through switching to other proteins. However those who did buy pork bought more of it, resulting in total pork volumes growing by 3.7% YoY (Kantar, 2 w/e 24 December 2023).
Within the category, pork roasting joints (£6.05/kg) and gammon (£6.48/kg) are the next cheapest roasting cuts after turkey, and both saw strong growth, with pork roasting joints up 16.8% compared with December 2022 and 35.1% compared with 2019. Gammon was the second most popular MFP roasting joint, behind turkey, with volumes up 4.9% on 2022 and 12.2% on 2019. Sausages and bacon volumes also saw growth.
In the two weeks leading up to Christmas, shoppers spent more than £593 million on total dairy products, 2% up on 2022.
All major retailers saw YoY MFP volume growth in the 2 w/e 24 December 2023, but the traditional top 4 outperformed the discounters. Discounters continue to see the biggest change since before Covid, however, with volumes up 29.2% versus Christmas 2019, and it , was a positive Christmas for butchers with YoY volume growth of 3.9% (2w/e 24 December 2023, Kantar).
AHDB’s Retail & Consumer Insight Analyst, Charlotte Forkes-Rees said: “It’s great to see such great retail performances across our meat and dairy sectors over Christmas, and we hope this continues in 2024.
“AHDB continue to promote the natural health benefits of both red meat and dairy to provide accurate information and reassurance for all consumers, with our recent ‘THIS and THAT’ campaign championing the art of balanced eating.”
To read the full AHDB dairy and red meat Christmas reports visit: https://ahdb.org.uk/Query/4192?title=Latest%20consumer%20insight%20articles