As the full extent of last year’s bumper sales emerged, fresh primary meat and poultry slid into a 6.6% decline in the 12 weeks to 13th June, driven by beef and chicken, according to Kantar.

As a nation we slowly began returning to work and meeting socially again; coupled with a wet May this resulted in a tough environment for meat, fish and poultry. Beef and chicken have seen steep declines of 10.4% and 6.8% respectively resulting in a loss of £67million over the last 12 weeks driven in large part by shoppers no longer buying them.

“These proteins in particular benefited from lockdown last year; with chicken breasts and mince being favourite ingredients in the scratch cooking trend” commented Avneet Chana, strategic insight director at Kantar.

Lamb and fish, on the other hand, continue to see growth, posting value increases of 6.6% and 16.3% respectively although this has slowed compared with the previous period. Lamb, the standout performer in red meat, has benefited from shoppers buying greater volumes per trip in store.

While the performance of fresh fish was subdued during the pandemic, shoppers are returning to the category, with an additional 1.1million Brits buying fresh fish compared to a year ago. As we begin to return to some kind of normality, shoppers are once again seeking convenience: added value is the fastest growing area within fish, with gains of 40.8%.

Fresh fish wasn’t alone in seeing an influx of shoppers, with an additional 1.2 million consumers buying into the meat-free category in the last 12 weeks, compared to last year.

A wetter May led to a challenging time for burgers and grills, both falling into decline by 13.3% and 5.8% respectively. Last May Brits had 30 million BBQ occasions, compared to just 12.5 million this year, offering fewer opportunities for these cuts.

Looking to the future, Kantar says we can expect this mixed picture to continue as sales fall compared with the unprecedented performance witnessed last year, as well as the increasing uncertainty as to when restrictions on mass gatherings will end. Sporting events such as the Euros could help boost the performance of meat, fish and poultry. For a view of how the Euros might impact sales , watch Kantar’s short video here.