Poultry sales slide by 7%, survey finds

UK - Most of the leading retailers report that there has been no discernible drop in demand for poultry and eggs since the discovery of the UK's first incidence of avian influenza in Fife last week.

However, figures published by the Meat & Livestock Commission in its latest weekly market survey tell a different story.

Each month, the market analyst TNS conducts an survey of consumer trends for MLC. The latest results cover the four-week period ending on March 26, which is well before the Fife discovery, and show that there had been a 7% fall in household purchases of fresh and frozen poultry, with expenditure down by 8% on the previous month.

The statistics need to be taken into context because while there had been a marginal increase in the sale of fresh chicken breasts, purchases of frozen product were down by more than 10%. Household purchases of turkey were also down by around 2%. The survey is derived from information supplied by 20,000 respondents.

However, there is some good news in that March sales of whole chicken were actually up by 2.4% by volume and 1.5% in terms of cash outlay on the same period 12 months ago. However, the downside is that the current trade on the Smithfield market in London is nothing short of calamitous.

Source: The Herald
calendar icon 11 April 2006
clock icon 1 minute read
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