In the 12 weeks to 4 October, UK shoppers' spend on beef purchases was up 1.6% compared with the same period last year.
As prices were 2% higher, this means that they had 0.4% less beef in their basket, according to the latest Worldpanel by Numerator UK data published by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) this week.
As always, there was a wide variance in the performance between the different cuts of beef.
Sales of steak meat were 7.9% higher, with sirloin performing particularly well, up by 21%.
It was also a strong period for burger sales, up 10.2%, and sausages, up 12.5%.
The AHDB suggests that good weather during this quarter, which covered the months of July, August and September, plus increased promotional activity, will have driven sales.
Lamb under pressure
UK shoppers spent 3.9% less on lamb in the same 12 weeks.
With retail prices 8% higher, that meant that shoppers actually bought 11% less product.
The positives identified by the AHDB in its analysis was that promotional activity helped increase lamb mince sales, while stewing lamb also recorded a strong performance with an 18.2% increase in purchases by shoppers.
Pork sales also drop
Retail pork prices increased by just 1% during this period, the lowest increase in meat fish or poultry, according to the AHDB.
However, consumer spend fell by 1.1%, which means that the amount of product bought fell by 2.1%.
Primary pork products performed well, but this was offset by a 4.4% decline in processed pork products.
In particular, bacon rasher sales were down 8.1% and sausage sales were down 5.3%, though gammon sales increased, encouraged by promotional activity.
Pig and poultry meat are significantly cheaper than beef, with lamb traditionally the most expensive meat.
As a result, lamb sale volumes are always much lower than the others and while beef sales are broadly stable, chicken meat remains the consistent growth product in the category.
Pig prices have been depressed for much of the past year and this is reflected by the low increase in retail price, which, at 1%, is well below the general rate of UK inflation.
For over a year, the volume of beef sales in UK retail have been in decline, despite the fact that shoppers were spending significantly more than in the same period the previous year.
This is because the rising farmgate prices of late 2024 and early 2025 were finding their way through to supermarket shelves, but the latest quarterly results show just a 2% overall increase in beef retail prices.
This is below the overall rate of inflation and suggests that the higher farmgate prices of last year, which subsequently fell back, have by now been absorbed into the retail price and the 2% increase is driven by higher retail and/or processing costs or, alternatively, a higher margin being taken.
