Coronavirus drives increase in meat sales

Ground beef is biggest gainer

Meat sales have increased rapidly during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a new report from the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) shows.

Meat sales, excluding deli meat, increased 7.3% for the week ending March 8. Deli meat sales increased 4.8%, according to data from IRI and 2010 Analytics, LLC.

In absolute dollars, ground beef sales increased by $26.2 million for the week ending March 8. Ribeyes increased $13.5 million, chicken breasts increased $6.2 million, chicken thighs increased $3.7 million, pork ribs increased $3.6 million and ground turkey increased $3.5 million.

Compared to the week of March 8, 2019, fresh beef sales increased almost $40 million, an 8% increase. Sales of fresh beef have increased 5.8% over the last four weeks and 3.7% over the last 12 weeks.

Fresh chicken sales increased more than $16 million, or 6.1%, compared to 2019. Fresh pork increased 8.6%. Deli meat sales increased by 4.8%.

The full report can be downloaded here.

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Casey Laughman is the former Editor in Chief of Food Engineering magazine. He has almost two decades’ experience as a writer and editor for mainstream and trade publications. He spent several years as a writer and editor for two news services before becoming the editor of a legal publication and managing editor of a trade magazine that covered the commercial facilities market.