Lost barbecue days hit otherwise buoyant GB red meat sales

Bad weather during the barbecue season has hit red meat sales, blighting an otherwise buoyant picture for the past 12 months.

According to figures produced by market analyst Kantar, British shoppers bought 565,100t of beef, lamb and pork in the 52 weeks to 16 May.

That is an increase of 9.4% on the previous 12 months. Coupled with generally higher prices, the increase by value was 12.6%, with a total of £4.1bn spent.

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According to Hybu Cig Cymru (Meat Promotion Wales), the performance reflects huge retail demand for locally sourced beef, lamb and pork during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

HCC data analyst Glesni Phillips said: “We saw a rapid rise in red meat’s popularity, which continued even after the initial period of panic buying at the start of the pandemic.

“Almost 54% of Britain’s total population chose to buy lamb during the 12 months, which also saw a 3.8% increase in the number of buyers.”

Pork was also popular with purchases made by 71% of the population.

However, figures for the 12 weeks up to 16 May 2021 paint a less positive picture compared with the same period 12 months ago.

Sales of fresh primary meat and poultry dipped by 4.3% compared with the high-spending period during the first lockdown of 2020, Kantar’s figures show.

This was largely a result of primary beef sales declining – down 8.7% in value terms and 12.2% in volume.

Pork also moved into decline after a growth of 8.8% in the previous three-month period.

Poor weather effect

Kantar analyst Jim McKenna blamed the downturn for traditional barbecue products on bad weather in April and May.

“There were 15m fewer barbecue occasions this April than in the same month last year,” Mr McKenna said.

Sausage sales were particularly badly affected, seeing value and volume sales fall by more than 12%.

Only lamb bucked the downward trend, with sales up by 10.5% by value compared with the same 12 weeks in 2020.

Sales were up 7.5% by value compared with the same period in 2019, and lamb attracted 130,000 additional shoppers against data for 2020. Strong sales of lamb joints at Easter and Ramadan were the key driver as families got together after pandemic restrictions were eased. 

Overall though, Mr McKenna forecast primary red meat cuts would decline against the record highs of 2020, as shoppers returned to hospitality outlets over the summer and focused more on burgers and sausages for barbecues, weather permitting.