News
Ground pork demand bright spot for the pork industry
The National Pork Board is looking for ways to keep consumers coming back to pork at the meat case.
Neal Hull, director of channel marketing for the National Pork Board says sales of ground pork have surged 27 percent since the start of the pandemic and their research shows more consumers are trying ground pork for the first time. “Forty-five percent of households that purchased ground pork during the pandemic were not purchasing ground pork the prior twelve months,” he says. “So we had new households in the category. And then those households have purchased it multiple times from March to June.”
He tells Brownfield there’s a huge opportunity to continue to increase consumer demand for ground pork. “The reason people buy it is, its versatile, it’s flavorful, and it fits a recipe I’m looking for,” he says. “So we’re going to continue to try and amplify that message to ensure people have ideas of different ways to use it.”
With record supplies of pork, any increases in demand – either domestically or globally – could potentially help the price picture.
AUDIO: Neal Hull, National Pork Board