LMC: Strong Retail Red Meat Sector Last Year
NORTHERN IRELAND, UK - While the vast majority of Northern Irish (NI) beef is exported to Great Britain (GB) or mainland Europe, the retail beef and lamb market in NI remains a small but essential market for the NI industry.With the retail volume sales
of red meat market under pressure in
recent months in GB, it is worth
considering how the NI retail market is
performing by comparison.
In terms of volume sales, the NI meat
market generally has been under
pressure over the last year (52 weeks
ending 18 March 2012). According to
Kantar data for NI, volume sales of all
meats combined are down by nine per
cent. The good news is that despite
this decline in overall meat volumes,
sales of beef and lamb have been
relatively robust.
Volume sales of beef were up by
almost one per cent in the 52 weeks
ending 18 March 2012, and although
lamb sales in NI fell by 3.4 per cent
over the same period, this looks
positively robust when compared with
the 13 per cent decline in volume
sales of other meats.
Perhaps the obvious reason for the
reduced volumes is higher prices. The
average retail beef price in NI rose by
11 per cent to £6.57/kg over in the
year ending 18 March, compared to
the previous year. The average retail
lamb price rose by 13 per cent to
£7.54/kg over the same period. By
comparison however, the average
price of all other meats rose by
80p/kg or almost 20 per cent to
£5.09/kg. The rate of price increase
for these other meats was clearly
much stronger and that helps to
explain the improved relative position
of beef and lamb which is
encouraging.
The net result of rising prices and
reduced volumes sales meant that in
the year ending 18 March total
consumer expenditure on meat
generally was up by six per cent,
despite the nine per cent decline in
sales. Over the same period, retail
expenditure on beef and lamb rose by
11.3 per cent and 9.3 per cent
respectively. Expenditure on all other
meats rose by a modest 3.4 per cent.
These figures plainly show that in the
NI retail meat market, beef and lamb
demand is holding up very well,
relative to other meats. Red meat has
in fact eaten into the market share of
some of those other meats over the
course of the last year.
In terms of volumes, beef’s share of
total meat sales increased from 28
per cent in the year ending 20 March
2011, to 31 per cent in the year
ending 18 March 2012. Lamb’s
share of the total meat market was
steady at just four per cent of total
volume sales in the last year.
Beef accounts for just over a third of
total retail expenditure on red meat.
In the 52 weeks ending 18 March
2012, beef expenditure accounted for
36 per cent of all meat sales, up from
34.4 per cent the previous year.
In the last year, 99.5 per cent of
shoppers purchased meat. This figure
was unchanged from the previous
year. Despite strong performance in
terms of volume sales and consumer
expenditure, beef penetration in NI
has been under pressure. The
proportion of consumers that
purchased beef has fallen by 1.5
percentage points to 92.2 per cent of
consumers in the year ended 18
March 2012. The proportion of NI
consumers buying lamb has fallen by
2.2 percentage points to 52.1 per
cent in the last year.
Further Reading
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