World meat industry news

Meat and meat products have always been among the Russian consumers’ favorite types of foods. Due to the pandemic, the year 2020 was a turning point in terms of distribution of consumer spending: the share of expenditures on services dropped significantly, while household expenditures on food went up under the influence of growth in household food consumption.

The analysis suggests that, in 2020, when the majority of consumers switched to remote work because of the pandemic, production of meat and convenience meat products went up, which is associated with an increase in home consumption. In the first three years of the analyzed period, there is a slight decrease in the production of sausages, which managed to reverse the negative trend and went up by 3.79% in production volume in 2020. Similarly, the canned meat segment shows robust growth in production by 2020, despite a slight decline in 2018. 

Acknowledging that in these circumstances the features of consumer behavior in the market for meat products are shifting, in March 2021, Laboratoriya Trendov conducted an online survey in order to study changes in consumer behavior in the respective market.

A solution questionnaire and an approach implemented within the Jobs to be Done and Customer Development frameworks were used. 112 people took part in the survey, which was enough to confirm the hypotheses formed earlier during in-depth interviews. 

The main group of consumers who passed the survey are between 26 and 55 years of age (92%), of which 42.9% are in the most numerous and solvent age group of 36 to 45. Around 65% of respondents are married or simply living together with a partner, 58% have children, and 16.1% of consumers live alone, without a family and children. This distribution is close to the general consumer portrait in the food market. 79.5% of respondents are female, which has to do with greater activity of women both in the field of survey participation and in the consumer market (choosing and buying food for the whole family).

The poll showed that exactly half of the respondents consume meat daily, and only 1.8% do not consume meat and meat products at all. At the same time, 4.5% of respondents consider themselves to be vegans or vegetarians. In-depth interviews also confirmed that some consumers are not vegan or vegetarian in nature but categorize themselves as such; they may occasionally consume meat and meat products.

One can speak of part of the consumers experiencing a decrease in meat consumption, or changes taking place in the structure of its consumption.

Some consumers have begun to give preference to fish and seafood under the influence of the expanding range of these products and the development of retail chain projects specializing in fish. The second reason is sports and weight control, which imply a change in diets and a shift in consumption in favor of presumably healthier meats (primarily chicken and turkey). The third one is the wide range of food products available on the market. A similar trend has been identified in other markets and involves a reduction in meat consumption influenced by the desire to try as many different foods as possible (primarily dairy products, vegetables and groceries). 

The crisis and the pandemic hit consumers’ wallets hard, and therefore 9.8% of respondents have been reducing consumption due to rising prices. When the choice is vast in a market, economy product categories turn out to the winners.

It is important for manufacturers to know that 11.6% of respondents dislike the choice on the present market. This can be confirmed by the assessment of the existing range of meat and meat products.

The respondents note a wide selection of products on the market, which allows the needs of any consumer to be satisfied. Meanwhile, more than 40% of them prefer to buy familiar products (they are conservatives), and 20% are unable choose anything despite the wide range of products. The above is, essentially, the so-called illusion of choice, which manifests itself in consumers not being able to tell the difference between products from different manufacturers. This is reported by 28.4% of respondents, and this is a worrying sign for marketers, whose efforts to stand out among competitors are, in some cases, futile. 

In the in-depth interviews and in this survey, some consumers stated that the growth of the range goes hand in hand with a decrease in quality, with the packaging getting better and the quality getting worse. Only 16.5% of the respondents mentioned an improvement in quality in the course of the survey.

19.3% of respondents believe that one can always find something delicious and interesting on the market if one wants variety. At the same time, about a quarter of consumers are prone to gastronomic experiments, regularly looking for new items in retail and trying new products of manufacturers as they appear. Similar results were obtained by Laboratoriya Trendov when conducting surveys on the ice cream and bakery markets. On average, “innovators” looking for new products make up approximately 10% in food markets, whereas those who may be interested in a new product in the case of recommendations or attractive offers make up about 50–60%. 

Meat products consumed by respondents at home at least once a month. The consumption pattern is typical for the market; the share of consumers who regularly consume chilled packaged convenience meats is already at 43.8%, approaching 50%. Frozen convenience foods of respective types account for 25.9%. This implies that this category of products has already firmly entered the life of large city residents, providing them with convenience and saving their time.

The most popular ones among consumers are hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores, predominantly featuring packaged meat products. The development of farmer chains and branded retail by manufacturers has resulted in them occupying the third and fourth places in popularity. Markets received 11.7% due to their small numbers in million cities and ordering products from farmers not always being convenient—in addition, consumers prefer trusted suppliers, who are not always easy to find. The Internet accounts for 17.1%, and it is obvious that the growth of this share was spurred by the impact of the pandemic.

Situations of meat consumption at home are. It is interesting that fried meat is behind baked and stewed meat with a significant gap, and 65.8% of respondents use meat for making soups. This confirms the hypotheses that have proved themselves true in other food markets: the food habits of residents of large cities are changing. For instance, the consumption of soups is decreasing, and so is the consumption of bread together with soup. All in all, the food cooked is slowly but steadily becoming healthier.

The selection criteria for meat and meat products are presented in Table 3 and are typical for a food market. Previous experience comes first here. This echoes the fact that about 40% of respondents prefer familiar products that suit them, and there are few innovators who are completely open to gastronomic experiments.

Alarming for marketers are the low importance of manufacturer or brand awareness (22.7%), convenience of packaging (9.1%), labels on packaging indicating the properties of products (9.1%), packaging appearance (7.3 %), useful information on packaging (5.5%), advertising (3.6%) and the activity of manufacturers in social networks (3.6%). In other words, almost all the areas that marketers focus on have practically no influence on the choice, as the survey results show. This is the essence of the marketing conservatism of the meat market as opposed to the more advanced dairy and confectionery markets, among others.

If consumers do not find their familiar products on the shelves—which is critical for them, as shown above—they go for similar products from another manufacturer (47.3%) or refuse to buy anything. The first scenario confirms the previously revealed fact that consumers do not see a fundamental difference between the products of different manufacturers. The second one involves the preservation of loyalty to familiar products, as evidenced by the willingness to go to another store to find them.

In the course of the survey, respondents were also asked to note their inherent changes in behavior in the market for meat and meat products.

This yet again confirms the hypothesis that consumers are changing the structure of consumption, in particular under the influence of healthy living trends, and strive to make purchases more frequently, which leads to an increase in consumption of chilled products. At the same time, consumers are not entirely satisfied with the quality of the products on the market, and thus they prefer to cook some of the products at home themselves, and are shifting part of the demand toward butcher’s and farm stores as well as eating out. 

Another important point is that consumers shared what products they are missing on the market. Fairly rare types of meat were named: duck, rack of lamb, rabbit, goose, mutton, and horse meat. In general, it was confirmed that the assortment on the market is sufficient, but nevertheless consumers indicate a lack of quality products.

In conclusion, the respondents were asked to provide recommendations to meat and meat product manufacturers. The main wishes are listed below:

- expand the range through organic products;

- openly write the composition and use quality raw materials and additives;

- stop chasing low costs, do not save on the composition, do not spoil the product and do not reduce the quality;

- do not abuse injections and do not increase the shelf life;

- learn how to position products correctly;

- diversify packaged or cut products ready for cooking;

- respond faster to changes in consumer preferences;

- resolve issues with storage in retail outlets and control the freshness of products.

The past year has accelerated the transformation of the rather conservative meat and meat products market due to changing consumer behavior. Consumers are satisfied with the range and have virtually no unmet needs; however, the quality of the products presented on the shelves is assessed as low.  

Read more news in our Telegram Channel  & Find more Analytics here