The trend in recent months of UK shoppers spending more money on buying beef but getting less in their basket continues in the UK.

In the latest Worldpanel by Numerator UK data for the 12 w/e 22 February 2026, published by AHDB, retail customers spent £1.4bn (€1.6bn) or 8% more overall on beef purchases but because of the average price having increased by 16%, they finished up with 7% less beef in their shopping trolley.

Retail beef sales in the UK are mainly through supermarkets as the number of butcher shops have been in long-term decline. The impact of higher cattle prices in the UK and Ireland over the past year has now largely filtered through to retail prices. However there hasn’t been a uniform increase in prices across all types of beef.

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The latest 12 week data shows a big variation in the price increases between different types of beef and also a big difference in what shoppers have been buying less of.

Variation between different types of beef

The biggest fall in the volume of beef sales over the recent 12 week period had taken place with mince, the category where the retail price increase has also been the highest. UK shoppers bought 31,500 tonnes which is 3,282 tonnes or 9.4% less than in the same 12 week period last year.

However while buying less, they actually spent £301m (€346m) or 8.4% more money because the average price of mince increased by almost 31% year on year to the equivalent of almost €11/kg.

It was a similar trend with steak meat.

Despite spending £19.7m (€22.6m) or almost 11% more buying steaks than they did in the same period last year, they bought 791 tonnes or 8% less product than a year ago. Again, this is explained by higher retail prices which increased by just over 20% to £22.41/kg (€25.75/kg).

Roast beef retail prices showed the lowest increase during this twelve period, rising by just over 3% to £11.81/kg (€13.57/kg). However, even this modest price increase wasn’t sufficient to encourage shoppers to buy roasts and this along with sausages were the only category where shoppers spent less, £870,000 (€1m), than they did in the same 12 week period last year with volume sales down by just under 4%.

Comment – important category for Irish beef producers

The UK retail sector is a major high value market for Irish beef exports. It is reassuring that British shoppers have been willing to pay more for beef as retail prices adjusted to reflect higher farm gate prices over the past year.

However there has been a cost because despite spending more, they are getting less beef for their money.

What is also interesting to note, is that retail price increases for beef haven’t been spread equally across the different types of beef that are presented on the retail shelves. Mince beef retail prices have increased by a whopping 31% while roast beef retail prices have increased by a relatively modest 3%.

As a result the retail price of mince beef is closing the gap with the retail price of roasts which reflects the fact that consumers in Britain want to buy mince beef for their every day purchase and steaks for special occasions. Roast beef is being left behind in retail though it remains popular in food service and catering outlets.