How meat & poultry performed at Christmas

While meat & poultry volumes are down year on year, Christmas offered a glimmer of positivity. Sales were “better than expected”, according to British Meat Processors Association CEO Nick Allen.

AHDB analysis of Kantar data [4 w/e 25 December] backs this up. It shows meat & poultry volumes were down 0.3% year on year, outperforming a fall of 1% for wider grocery.

“Most of the category’s success has probably been at the expense of the eating out of home sector,” Allen explains. “Because of economic pressures and the train strikes, there has been less consumed in restaurants.”

Granted, things were less positive for the traditional Christmas centrepiece: turkey. Amid supply issues caused by the country’s worst ever bird flu outbreak, whole turkey volumes fell 13.2% year on year and by 33.1% on 2019, the last pre-Covid period.

On the plus side, turkey crowns and joints saw a 4.8% rise, reflecting a long-standing trend towards smaller joints. Still, this wasn’t enough to compensate for whole turkey losses, with overall roasting volumes for turkey down 3.2% versus 2021 and 20.6% against 2019 levels.

Conversely, lamb was a standout performer on the back of some targeted festive promotions. Sales grew 10% in total, driven by a 10.6% increase in volumes for leg joints and a 3.9% increase for shoulder joints. The gains for leg roasting joints meant it even surpassed 2019 volumes, AHDB says.

The main challenger to turkey and red meat was chicken. Volumes of whole chickens rose 11.9%, AHDB says. This means it accounted for 23% of all roasting volumes in December – an increase of 2ppts year on year.

Beef roasting joints were another winner over Christmas, enjoying a 2.2% increase in volumes. Given large price hikes, the growth could mean consumers are recognising beef’s value for money and provenance credentials, suggests Bord Bia insights and planning specialist Cian O’Mahony.

Results from Bord Bia’s UK Beef Brand Health Check research in December suggest shoppers value British and Irish beef three times more than all international beef.

Retail sales have also been “incredibly strong” in January, O’Mahony adds, driven by the number of shoppers switching from eating out to retail.