Meat & Poultry: U.S. Retail Market Trends & Opportunities

Packaged Facts projects retail sales for meat, poultry, and meat substitutes will approach $100 billion in 2021. Concerns over the health impacts of red meats have caused an ongoing shift in consumption of poultry, while also reinvigorating the market for pork. Yet the consumer market for beef and poultry still shows signs of life, with consumers increasingly trading quantity for quality. 

Consumer Meat Market Trending Toward Premium Products

Across the consumer meat market, gains in disposable income have resulted in consumers focusing on premium products such as organic, grass-fed, and cage-free meats. As a result, premiumization—alongside meats positioned as snacks and the growing nutritional emphasis on dietary protein—is a key trend driving retail sales in the meat and poultry market as a whole.

Further analysis in Meat & Poultry: U.S. Retail Market Trends & Opportunities reveals that concerns over animal welfare, health, the environment, and supply chain transparency will continue to present challenges and opportunities to marketers of meat, poultry, and substitute products. Even the largest meat and poultry processors are being forced to reconfigure their production practices and marketing to address evolving consumer preferences.

Nevertheless, a subset of consumers have adopted meat-free vegan or vegetarian diets, aided in doing so by a plethora of products that allow them to enjoy the familiar flavor of comfort foods like bacon and burgers without eating meat. Continuing innovation in this category of the market is helping to win over even committed meatarians, particularly those seeking healthy forms of protein regardless of its source.

Scope of this Report

Meat & Poultry: U.S. Retail Market Trends & Opportunities looks at the current and forecasted U.S. retail market for meat and poultry products, including fresh, frozen, and processed products, as well as meat substitutes. The discussion includes key trends driving consumer purchases within this food category, including demand for locally sourced, natural, and/or organic products. Value-added products that reduce preparation steps are also appealing to busy consumers. Other major influences on the market, such as concerns over the treatment of animals, are also discussed. Long-term trends and year-to-year volatility in product prices – influenced by factors such as weather conditions and outbreaks of animal disease – significantly impact consumption patterns. Consumer attitudes regarding meat, poultry, and meat substitutes are also investigated.

Methodology

Meat & Poultry: U.S. Retail Market Trends & Opportunities encompasses sales of meat, poultry, and meat substitutes in retail outlets such as convenience stores, supermarkets and other grocery stores, general merchandise stores (including warehouse clubs and supercenters), and specialty food stores. Sales of meat, poultry, and meat substitutes by non-store retailers such as e-commerce and mail-order direct sellers are also included. Sources of market and consumer data consulted for this report include:

• IRI sales tracking through selected U.S. retail outlets;
• government agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. International Trade Commission;
• meat and poultry processors and representative trade associations;
• a wide range of pertinent industry sources, including business newspapers and magazines, company websites, consumer blogs, press releases, and trade publications.

Consumer data in this report come from two primary sources. The first source is the Packaged Facts National Online Consumer Survey, which includes a panel of 2,000 U.S. adults (aged 18 and older) that is balanced to the national population on primary demographic measures such as age cohort, gender, geographic region, marital status, race/ethnicity, presence or absence of children in the household, and household income.

Another source of consumer data in this report is the Simmons National Consumer Study from Experian Marketing Services. On an ongoing basis, Experian Marketing Services conducts booklet-based surveys of large and randomly selected sample of consumers (approximately 25,000 for each 12-month survey compilation), which, as an aggregate, is intended to represent a statistically accurate cross-section of the U.S. population as a whole.