Decline in home cooking skills needs to be arrested' says buyer Meat eating habit must be broadly reaffirmed' In common with most other outlets, it has been a tough year for red meat sales for the Co-operative Group. And, in spite of saturation cookery programmes on television, Garry Cronie, who heads its meat, poultry and fish buying team, feels that declining culinary skills may be a major unheralded factor. "Over the years we have certainly seen a decline in home cooking skills which needs to be arrested before it reaches the same level as home baking, with the consequent knock on effect on fresh meat sales," he said. In an attempt to address this, the Co-operative Group has launched an online cooking guide to encourage people to rediscover the lost art of cooking nutritious meals. The Get Cooking Get Shopping web site provides a series of tutor notes for community groups to use as a guide to running cooking and shopping workshops to help prepare cheap, healthy meals including meat based dishes using basic ingredients. Groups organising such courses can get funding from the Co-op's Community Dividend scheme. "However," Cronie stressed, "the meat eating habit needs reaffirming on a broader basis than the current largely species based promotions. It has to be presented as something more than just taking on fuel and we need to use all the resources we have as an industry to get this message home." However, in spite of the tough trading conditions, the Co-operative Group is more than holding its own, he maintained. One of its recent innovations has been the introduction of a range of GM free pork produced by Lincolnshire supplier George Adams. "We launched the range in August, in response to the consumer concerns about GM products, so it is a bit early to comment on performance just yet." More clear cut has been the positive response to the group's light lamb promotion which has more than maintained volume sales while its policy of promoting lamb essentially in its region of origin has also retained customer loyalty. Much the same could be said for beef with the Scottish product in particularly remaining pre-eminent north of the border although the group is unable to pass on the premium prices it has to pay due to its policy of nationwide pricing. While red meat sales remain a difficult area, both breaded chicken products and pre-packed fish have seen a resurgence. "After three years of steady growth, fish sales seemed to plateau in the past two years but now they have taken off again with double digit growth, with cod leading the way and a strong interest in shellfish," said Cronie. {{MEAT }}

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