Spanish love of butchers ‘gives Irish producers sales opportunity’

SPANISH consumers still buy 50% of their meat from butchers outlets rather than large supermarkets, representing a real sales opportunity for Irish producers, according to new Bord Bia research.

Irish beef sales to Spain grew slightly in volume in 2010, surpassing 14,000tn mainly due to an increase in offal sales. Some 60% of Irish beef is sold in Spain at multiple retail level.

However, the 50% of total Spanish beef sales in butchers was an encouraging and perhaps surprising find by Kantar Worldpanel research, commissioned by Bord Bia. This preference was found even though the product’s average price is higher than that of supermarkets/hypermarkets. It seems Spanish consumers trust their local butcher, believing that the product is fresher, more local and easier to buy in smaller amounts more frequently.