British pork retail support remains stable at the beginning of the year

However, AHDB's Porkwatch survey for January still shows relatively strong support for British pork products among the 11 retailers surveyed, with one or two exceptions.

fresh pork

Overall, 84% of fresh pork on supermarket shelves was UK-produced in January, slightly down from 85% in November and 87% at its peak in September, but well up from January 2022's figure of 80%.

Aldi, Co-op, M&S, Morrisons and Sainsbury's offer 100% fresh British pork, Waitrose 99% and Lidl 98%. Tesco's 73% is down from 75% in November, Asda's is down 57% from November, and Budgens' 75%. Iceland is just 14% British, up from 44% in November.

Bacon

For bacon, the overall figure of 61% was slightly higher than in November and well above the 55% recorded a year ago.

Co-op and M&S were 100% British, with Waitrose at 96% and Sainsbury's making a significant jump from 69% in November to 83% in January. Conversely, Asda, which fell from 50% in November to 38%, behind Tesco (48%) and Lidl (43%), Morrisons with 51% and Aldi with a relatively healthy 66%. Budgens scored 27% and Iceland just 9%.

Ham

The overall figure for ham of 64% was slightly lower than in November and a year ago. Again, these were only Co-op and M&S with 100% British product, while Waitrose (92%), Aldi (84 %) and Sainsbury's (87%) also showed strong support for British ham. At Tesco, the share of the British product rose slightly to 67%, while at Morrisons it fell to 60%, the rest were below 50%, including Lidl (36%), Asda (33%), Budgens (23%) and Iceland (15% ).

sausages

Across all retailers surveyed, the 89% share of British sausages is up slightly from November and from 86% in January 2022.

M&S, the only retailer to carry exclusively UK-made products, as did Aldi, Waitrose (96%), Co-op (91%), Sainsbury's, Lidl (both 90%), Tesco and Asda (both 88%) and Morrisons ( 82%) also show strong support. 

NPA Commentary

NPA Chief Executive Lizzie Wilson said: “While there is always room for improvement, Porkwatch's latest figures are overall very positive given the current shortage of British pork. Retailers in the main continue to supply their customers with British pork products and, as always, we thank those who are clearly making this a priority.

In the short term, we want this to continue as producers need to support higher hog prices so they can start to make up for some of the losses they have suffered over the past two years."

“Long term, we will continue to push for supply chain reform to ensure that risks and rewards are shared more fairly and that British pork remains available on our retail shelves.”