With the exception of pork belly, average prices fell across the board but, despite this, switching to fresh chicken, lamb and beef contributed to fewer buyers of pork during the period compared with a year earlier.

The Hard Discounters were the only retailers to recrod growth in volume terms on the year.

Decreases in overall purchases were driven by falls in pork chop and roasting joint sales. Cuts to base prices failed to drive higher volume sales, with total expenditure subsequently falling by more than the drop in quantities. Within roasting joints, leg joints were the only category to record an increase in volume sales, with all of the Big 4 retailers increasing the amount sold on promotion over the period.

The picture was slightly better for cured and processed products but the value of sales was still down across the board.

Bacon was the only category for which the amount sold was actually higher but lower prices meant that less was spent on bacon than a year earlier.

The quantity of sausages and sliced cooked meats sold both fell by two per cent, despite prices for these products also being lower than in the same period last year.