IRI Inc. and Anne-Marie Roerink of 210 Analytics have partnered to provide the following update on the meat and poultry industry.
“Picked over or mostly empty meat cases are a sign of the times. Grocery retail is getting overwhelmed with an influx of shoppers wanting to stock up. A walk through the meat departments at Winn-Dixie, Publix and Walmart showed mostly empty shelves with just some sporadic items — often products with low household penetration like chicken hearts, beef tripas and plant-based meat alternatives. In the midst of these unprecedented times, shoppers are returning to the familiar — putting meat back at the center of plate. Retailers are working hard to keep their stores stocked, processing plants are ramping up capacity to attempt to keep up with the orders flooding their systems and distributors are trying to divert supply from foodservice to food retail.