AHDB: Meat and dairy outperform alternatives this Veganuary
This is driven by vegetable-based products such as bean burgers, rather than meat imitation products (like Quorn), as vegetable-based saw a -12.4% decline year on year. This is in stark contrast to meat, fish, and poultry (MFP) which saw volume growth of 1.4%. Similarly plant-based dairy decreased this January, with cow’s dairy outperforming plant-based (NIQ Panel on Demand Homescan Latest 4 Wks – w/e 25/01/25).
This weaker performance is likely due to declining engagement in Veganuary according to Google searches, and only a small proportion of the population taking part, which according to research by AHDB was 5.65% this year (YouGov/AHDB February 2025). 1.29% of those are vegan all year round, 2.30% managed to complete the Veganuary month and 2.06% didn’t. Of those who managed to maintain a vegan diet for the entire month of January, 39% stated they are not going to continue with the diet beyond January.
Meat-free and Meat, Fish and Poultry Performance
According to Kantar meat free has seen a decline in volumes sold on promotion year-on-year (-9.1%), along with high inflation, which likely contributes to performance. It is a similar story for lamb and beef which have also had high price increases, which has negatively influenced their volumes during January. However, volume gains for pork, poultry and fish outweigh these, resulting in category growth overall (Kantar 4 w/e 26 January 2025). Meat imitation products performed well in January (spend growth 12.9%, volume growth 3.7%), however it is the only meat free category to see both these increases, and we do not expect this to maintain going into February as historically (2021-2024) there has been an average decline in volume of -22.5% from January to February (Kantar 4 w/e 26 January 2025).
Dairy and Dairy-free performance
Volume of plant-based dairy decreased this January, with plant-based cheese seeing the largest declines in both spend (-25.6%) and volume (-30.6%) (NIQ Panel on Demand Homescan Latest 4 Wks – w/e 25/01/25). A new trend shown is plant-based spreads declining faster than cow’s butter, spreads and margarines, with fewer buyers compared to a year ago despite price decreases and promotional increases (NIQ Panel on Demand Homescan Latest 4 Wks – w/e 25/01/25). Overall, the data shows that cow’s dairy products are performing better than plant-based dairy alternatives (NIQ Panel on Demand Homescan Latest 4 Wks – w/e 25/01/25).
Over the years talk of Veganuary has softened with an obvious impact on alternatives sales. Continued promotion of the benefits of meat and dairy products being part of a healthy balanced diet and a natural source of vitamin B12 is important to the continued success of British meat and dairy products.
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