Sales of lamb remain a retail success story, despite the fading of some of the lockdown consumer patterns which had driven a growth in sales since 2019.
After March 2020, British retail sales data from Kantar had shown strong growth in consumer purchasing of lamb, as people tried new more adventurous home-cooked recipes during lockdown.
In recent months, as people have begun to eat out more and resume pre-Covid work patterns to an extent, sales have fallen back slightly, but people are still buying more lamb than they were before the start of the pandemic.
Total spending on lamb in GB retailers for the 12-week period ending 3 October was £126.3million, down 5.2% on the peak of late summer 2020 but still 9.5% ahead of 2019. Sales of chops and leg roasting joints remain 8% up on the levels of two years ago.
Looking at the year to date figures, retail sales of lamb for the 9 months to October stood at £497.7m (up 4.9%) equating to 47,840 tonnes (up 1.2%).
HCC Data Analyst Glesni Phillips said,
“As COVID restrictions ease we are seeing the return of pre-lockdown shopping habits, in terms of where people are spending and how much they’re eating out. Some foods which experienced a rise in popularity during 2020-21 have seen that boom dissipate, but lamb is holding onto a good number of the new consumers that were won over.
“These figures from Kantar confirm that lamb is very much back on the menu for British consumers. HCC’s promotional campaigns for PGI Welsh Lamb as a sustainable, versatile choice for home cooks has seen success so far, and will continue as we head towards the festive season.”
