Chicken experienced relatively strong gains in supermarkets meat departments with a 5.3-percent increase in dollar sales for the 52 weeks ending December 23, 2012 compared with the overall rise of 2.1 percent for the total meat department, according to FreshLook data.
Of the major meats, turkey sales volume last year increased the most on a percentage basis with a gain of 7.8 percent, followed by lamb +1.7 percent, beef +0.6 percent, and pork +0.5 percent. Veal’s dollar volume was off 5.7 percent while “other” meats (exotic, non-meat, and unknown) had a 6.6-percent increase.
On a quantity basis, chicken, of the major meats, with a 0.9-percent increase in pounds sold was the only one to experience more pounds moving through the supermarket meat departments. Total meat poundage was down 2.4 percent last year compared with 2011. Pork’s quantity was off 0.3 percent, lamb slipped 0.7 percent, turkey was down 3.1 percent, beef’s quantity decreased 6.3 percent, and veal lost 11.9 percent. “Other” increased 8.0 percent in poundage when 2012 is compared with 2011.
For the chicken category last year the average retail price increased 4.4 percent to $2.17 per pound compared with the average price for all meats of $3.08 per pound, a 4.6 percent rise from 2011. Turkey’s price averaged $2.02 per pound, up 11.2 percent; beef $4.37 per pound, up 7.4 percent; veal at $7.28 per pound, up 7.1 percent; lamb at $7.11 per pound, up 2.4 percent, and pork at $2.71 per pound, up 0.8 percent. “Other” at $3.17 per pound was 1.3 percent less than in 2011.
For the overall meat department during 2012, 35.1 percent of total dollar volume was sold with a feature price promotion and had an average price of $2.71 per pound. By comparison, 33.9 percent of chicken was sold with a featured price promotion and had an average feature price of $1.82 per pound. Turkey with 38.8 percent sold when featured with a price promotion registered the highest share of the major meats.
