A record-breaking Christmas week for grocery sales was seen in the UK in 2023, with a recorded £13.7 billion spent during December, according to Kantar UK.
An update on the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) website said “it was a Christmas cracker for meat sales also”, with the spend on total meat, fish and poultry (MFP) growing by 11.6% year-on-year (YoY) during the two week run-up to Christmas day.
The AHDB report explained that volumes for each protein “performed well” across the red meat category.
The report noted that “it was surprising to see demand for all the trimmings increase YoY”, considering the cost pressures still at the forefront of consumers’ minds.
Turkey is still the UK’s favourite roasting joint at Christmas, with 56% of shoppers preparing it according to analysis from IGD but total turkey was also the only protein in the MFP category to see volumes down on pre-Covid-19 levels.
Despite its higher average price, total beef volumes grew, and total lamb volumes saw a 17.3% YoY rise in volumes, which came from fresh lamb, specifically roasting joints.
Pork was the only red meat to have lost UK 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, according to Kantar.
In the two weeks leading up to Christmas (2023), shoppers spent more than £593 million on total dairy products and cows’ dairy equated to 94% of these total dairy volume sales, a 2% increase on the previous year.
Overall, cows’ cheese saw an increase of almost 4% in volume purchased last Christmas.
In spite of this, and in line with our pre-Christmas predictions, there was an indication that shoppers were cutting back in some areas perhaps perceived as non-essential, such as cheeseboards and convenience products.
Double cream and crème fraiche also performed well, and despite it not being a product normally associated with Christmas, yoghurt saw its volumes purchased increase by almost 14%
