November 16, 2009

Promotion seen as key to improve UK turkey sales

Promoting the health benefits of eating turkey could help reverse the decline of turkey consumption in the UK.

From 1996-2008, UK turkey consumption has halved to 2.8kg per head per day, while five percent of households stopped buying any turkey between 2007-2009, according to Matt Pullen, MD of Bernard Matthews Farms.

France and Germany's turkey consumption fared better in comparison, at 6.6kg and 5.6kg, respectively.

Pullen said the biggest challenge of the turkey industry is that many consumers do not buy turkey outside Christmas.

Turkey is seen as a Christmas-only meat and deemed as difficult to cook, Pullen said, adding that the meat is poorly merchandised with little choice of meat cuts in stores.

Pullen noted that the US industry has managed to double turkey consumption in the past 15 years, with data showing that 30 percent of US households eating turkey every week and 90 percent eating chicken.

While whole birds account for the largest proportion of the market, turkey mince now accounts for 10 percent of the market.