Inflation across a number of proteins led to an overall increase of 4.0% for meat and poultry prices in June, according to the latest Performance Report from Circana, 210 Analytics, and Hillphoenix. Fresh meat prices increased far more than processed meat and poultry prices. Despite inflation, consumers have purchased far more meat and poultry. Today’s meat department volume level is only surpassed by the 2020 pandemic year volume.
Meat Department Sales
The four-week month of June generated nearly $8.6 billion in meat department sales. This reflects the inflation mentioned above on top of demand-driven growth. Pound sales increased 1.7% in June 2025. The increase was fully driven by fresh meat sales that increased 3.0% in June while processed meat sales were down a bit.
Meat department sales have been positive since the first quarter of 2024. Second-quarter sales gains reached their highest levels since 2020, at +7.3%. Volume gains also reached the highest level since 2020, though it’s important to remember the switch in Easter timing that moved holiday-related sales from the first to the second quarter.
Growth would have likely been even stronger if it hadn’t been for the final week of June, ending 6/29. This is the week leading up to Independence Day. With the holiday falling on a Friday this year, it is likely that more of the sales were pushed into the first week of July with the Circana week endings falling on Sundays. This will likely bode well for the July report.
Fresh Meat Sales by Protein
Beef generated more than half of all fresh meat sales with dollars up by double digits. This includes robust price increases but also 3.5% growth in volume sales. Pork and lamb also had a strong June.
| June 2025 | Latest 52 weeks | ||||||||
| Type | $ sales | $ vs. YA | Lbs vs. YA | Type | $ sales | $ vs. YA | Lbs vs. YA | ||
| Total fresh meat | $6.1B | +8.3% | +3.0% | Total fresh meat | $76.6B | +8.9% | +4.2% | ||
| Fresh beef | $3.5M | +10.4% | +3.5% | Fresh beef | $42.8B | +12.5% | +6.6% | ||
| Fresh chicken | $1.6M | +7.6% | +2.6% | Fresh chicken | $20.2B | +6.1% | +3.3% | ||
| Fresh pork | $702M | +2.1% | +3.7% | Fresh pork | $8.6B | +4.0% | +2.5% | ||
| Fresh turkey | $181M | +3.8% | -2.3% | Fresh turkey | $3.3B | -0.2% | +1.8% | ||
| Fresh lamb | $74M | +18.1% | +10.3% | Fresh lamb | $957M | +10.9% | +11.2% | ||
| Fresh exotic | $15M | -9.0% | -6.8% | Fresh exotic | $219M | -2.2% | -0.2% | ||
| Veal | $3.1M | +0.5% | -6.4% | Veal | $44M | -2.0% | -5.5% | ||
Source: Circana, Integrated Fresh, MULO+
