Nearly 300 people joined AHDB's Retail and Consumer Insight webinars last month to hear how the cost-of-living crisis is impacting the red meat and dairy sectors.

The two webinars took an in-depth look at how the current economic climate is affecting consumer attitudes towards key reputational factors such as trust, the environment and health, as well as demand for meat and dairy products.

Both events were hailed a success by attendees with the majority claiming the insight was relevant to their business – scoring both highly for quality, usefulness and effective in improving their knowledge.

When asked how likely they were to recommend the webinars to others, the average score out of ten was 8.5, with the likelihood of using the data and information scoring 8.1.

AHDB Senior Retail Insight Manager Kim Heath said: "We were delighted with the high level of interest in both webinars, with attendee numbers up massively on last year. The attendance and feedback scores show the value of our work in exploring the impact of the struggling economy on all our sectors, as well as highlighting opportunities to businesses to help them navigate these challenging times."

During the webinars, analysts provided crucial insight into how the struggling economy was impacting household budgets and buying behaviours to predict short-term and longer-term sales of beef, lamb, pork and dairy.

The first webinar looked at the retail and foodservice markets which are feeling the effects of a drop in consumer confidence – which in September fell to its lowest levels since records began in 1974, with 59 per cent of consumers claiming to be worse off.

In retail, analysts highlighted the move by shoppers to cheaper meats and products, with more people buying pork and chicken over beef, lamb and fish. In dairy, block butter is losing out to margarine as shoppers trade down and hard discounters are gaining as people turn to cheaper stores.

The foodservice sector is also seeing customers choosing cheaper meals, with burgers, breakfasts and savoury pastries winning over meat-centred meals such as steak and chips, shepherd's pie and roast dinners.

In the second webinar, analysts looked at how the economy is impacting key reputational issues such as health, environment and animal welfare. With affordability of food being top of mind for consumers, other priorities are being sacrificed as a result.

Health as a priority had increased since lockdown but didn't recover to the record levels seen at the start of 2018. However, latest data now shows that managed and benefit-led health have both become a reduced priority, possibly due to the cost-of-living crisis.

And expense has displaced all reputational reasons for meat reduction, with cost being the leading reason for eating less meat – up 17 percentage points from May to August this year. However, it is not the same story for dairy, with reputational reasons still outweighing costs as the reason for cutting back.

AHDB Senior Consumer Insight Manager Steven Evans said: "It is clear to see that the landscape for reputation has changed to one which is increasingly price sensitive, but it is worth remembering that consumers are still ethically aware and while reputational factors are currently not a top priority, they are bubbling away under the surface.

"Health needs are adapting and becoming more streamlined due to the cost-of-living crisis and many consumers will have to adopt a cheaper, more nutrient poor diet. Therefore, it is important to remind people of the important role that meat and dairy can play in a healthy balanced diet.

"The value equation needs to be right, it's not always about price all of the time. There are opportunities for British produce, if we can really frame it as local, sustainable, with higher standards and better taste."

If anyone missed the webinars, they can watch them here https://ahdb.org.uk/consumer-insight-webinars-2022