The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS) has published its June 2025 meat and poultry inflation report.
“Using the red meat supermarket price report from AHDB and our own weekly market monitoring of supermarket chicken prices the month on month average price increase by 1.8%” said Tony Goodger, head of communications at AIMS.
“Between April and May the figures show an increase just 0.9% and whilst many cuts in lamb and pork have remained unchanged during June, once again it is beef and chicken that are driving price increases”, he continued.
“Overall, beef rose by an average of 3.2% and, most notable among the cuts was lean beef mince which increased by £0.82kg (9.15%), no doubt driven by the warm weather and barbecues. Standard mince nudged up by 4.6% (+£0.28kg) whilst sirloin and fillet steaks both saw increases in excess of £1.00 per kg”.
“Looking at chicken the Aldi price match probably drove the price for chicken wings down as they exited June 5.5% cheaper than in May. However, and again probably down to the warm weather and barbecues chicken breast portions (+6.7% / £0.49kg) and chicken thigh fillets (+5.1% / £0.42kg) showed the biggest moves.
“It was also interesting to see the whole large chickens add almost 5% in the month with some shoppers no doubt butchering the birds at home to provide themselves with portions at a cheaper price than pre-butchered pre-packs”.
In mid-June, the he latest ONS CPI inflation figures were published showing that food inflation at 4.4% year on year.
“Year on year meat and poultry price inflation for June stands at 12.77%” said Goodger, “with just pork (2.52%) below the ONS CPI inflation figure of 4.4%”.
“Prices are being driven up by beef which is now 30.5% (+£4.59kg) more expensive across the cuts monitored than twelve months ago”.
“With sirloin steak more than £10.00kg (+49.61%) more expensive than June 2024 and all cuts other than diced beef coming in at double digit percent rises it is no wonder that some of the supermarkets have looked further overseas than the Republic of Ireland for one off ‘tertiary brand’ deals”.
Lamb increased by 9.13% and chicken by 8.95% year on year.
“With the exception of chops, every lamb cut monitored showed double-digit percent rises with the largest mover being bone-in shoulder, possibly driven by the popularity of slow cooking”.
“Chicken cuts, with the exception of drumsticks, wings and legs continue to push up in price. However, consumers can find some respite in pork where both tenderloin (fillet) and mince were cheaper in June 2025 than 12 months ago”, he said.
“Despite the large increase in prices it appears that consumers are still enjoying meat and poultry at home. A combination of rising prices in the discretionary spend out of home sector and a focus from many of the supermarkets on dining at home with friends and family have no doubt driven meat sales in the last twelve months. Increased cost of production and processing are also a contributory factor to the price increases but the message I see across the category is that customers are still happy to put our members products in their shopping baskets”.