In 2014, UK consumers bought more poultry than any other meat product, a report by the British Poultry Council has found.
The ‘Economic impact of the British Poultry Meat Industry 2015’ found that in 2014, by weight, poultry accounted for 47% of all meat purchased in the UK.
Of those sales, chicken accounted for 91%, it found.
Fish is battering meat in UK sales
Meanwhile, chilled fish is the fastest growing area in terms of value and volume in the UK with deflation affecting fresh meat and poultry sales, figures from Kantar Worldpanel show.
Fish bucks the category trend with prices increasing as more sales come from the premium Added Value category, it says.
Kantar says that deflation remains the key trend in fresh meat and poultry, as volumes grow and value declines.
Price is down 4% in fresh meat and poultry, but more shoppers buying more often are keeping volumes static year on year, it says.
Poultry is driving the deflationary effects with value down significantly, but volumes growing for both chicken and turkey, Kantar says.
Recession
Since the recession started (2008) to 2014, when household budgets have been under particular pressure, poultry prices in the shops have increased by 13% compared with 35% for beef, 42% for lamb and 35% for food in general, the report found.
The UK is Europe’s third largest poultry meat producer and in 2014, it was home to 14% of EU 28 Member States’ production, it found.
The report found that three quarters of the poultry consumed in the UK is reared on UK farms and by bird number, chicken dominates poultry production.
Broiler chicken dominates poultry production by weight and in 2014, it comprised 1.4 (or 84%) of the total 1.6m tonnes, the report says.
Turkey ranked second, with around 0.2m tonnes of meat (or 11% of all poultry meat produced), it says.
In June 2014, Northern Ireland also ranked first amongst the UK’s nations for poultry bred for meat population density, with a ratio of 991 birds per square kilometre, it says.
This compares to ratios of 707 birds per square kilometre for England, 311 birds for Wales and 100 birds for Scotland, it found.