Added value products hitting red meat's core market The threat from fresh coated Red meat suppliers were encouraged several years ago by signs of saturation in the poultry sector, as the growth in whole bird and portion volume slowed. But now comes evidence of added value chicken and turkey products taking large amounts of the cash consumers formerly spent on the easiest cooking cuts of beef, lamb, pork and perhaps bacon. Fresh coated products are the biggest and fastest growing part of the added value poultry market. And within the fresh coated sector, best performance is by burgers, steaks and escalopes. From red meat sellers' viewpoint, the most disturbing revelation in a new market analysis from Sun Valley is penetration: over half of all UK households new regularly purchase a fresh coated poultry product, an increase of 4% since 1997. This appears to be similar to the penetration of beef mince, for instance, and the poultry product market share gains have persisted in the face of beef's recovery in retail volume sales and penetration since BSE. The usual caveats apply to the figures, as Sun Valley is promoting the central role of its products and in particular its market leading Garlic Butter Chicken Kiev. Yet this sales performance would logically help explain the disappointing performance of such lines as lamb and pork chops during recent years. Sun Valley claims the fresh coated offers have strongest appeal to the under 35s (implicitly reassuring for lamb sellers), but an even spread across the socioeconomic groups. {{MEAT }}