Farming Talk: Lamb bouncing back in favour with the public
After a sustained period of gloom, lamb is bouncing back in popularity among British consumers with volume sales on the up. This is particularly encouraging as I see the next six months as being quite challenging for producers.
Latest figures revealed that in the 12-week period to September 2, volume sales of lamb rose by 14 per cent to 15,656 tonnes year-on-year, with £131 million being spent on the product, up six per cent year-on-year. Initial indications are that this is a trend that is carrying on through the autumn.
The 12-week year-on-year increase has come amid a fall in the average retail price of lamb for the same period of seven per cent to £8.35 p/kg.
The increased sales are undoubtedly driven largely by greater supply. While we have seen a fall in the retail price, the popularity of the product when widely available demonstrates that consumers do see lamb as a versatile meat which represents value for money.
Lamb has been the focus of a recent marketing push by Eblex with our three-year 'Discover Lamb' campaign aiming to reposition lamb as an affordable and versatile meat, as I discussed in a previous column. In addition, we have been targeting food establishments with our Five Star Lamb Tour, aimed at getting lamb back on menus.
We have also recently launched our Simple Pleasures consumer advertising campaign. Promoting both Red Tractor and Quality Standard beef and lamb, the campaign focuses on the satisfaction and accomplishment of cooking a great beef or lamb dish.
Research has shown us that many consumers think cooking with beef and lamb is more difficult than chicken and so it's therefore not necessarily suitable for a quick mid-week family meal. This campaign is designed to communicate that cooking with beef and lamb can be very simple and rewarding.
The campaign features TV advertising with four different variations, running across the Channel 4 portfolio and on UKTV Food.
The TV advertising is being supported by video-on-demand, press advertising and online activity, in the form of display advertising and social media content on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
Simple Pleasures is our third advertising campaign since the Quality Standard Mark was launched in 2004. Independent brand tracking has clearly demonstrated the success of our previous adverts in driving brand awareness and consumer understanding, and we are confident this campaign will achieve its main objective of ensuring consumers recognise Red Tractor and Quality Standard Mark beef and lamb when out shopping.
I hope you manage to see one of the adverts live on TV, but in case you miss them they are all available to watch on our YouTube channel, which can be found at www.youtube.com/EblexAHDB
Clive Brown is senior northern regional manager of Eblex
