Magazine: Easter ham consumption: a shift towards quality products

There are two mains seasons for selling smoked meat and smoked-cooked meat: one is in March-April and the other is in November-December. In these periods consumption is 3-4 times bigger and their proportions are 62 percent (smoked meat) and 38 percent (smoked-cooked meat).

According to Zoltán Szántó, product manager with Pick-Szeged Zrt. smoked meat product sales have been growing in terms of both value and volume every Easter season since 2008. Krisztina Bódi, Kométa 99 Zrt.’s marketing director is of the opinion that Easter is always a reliable period in ham sales and she is happy about the fact that consumption is slowly but steadily shifting towards quality products. There are only minor innovation opportunities as consumers are attached to the good old salty and smoky flavours when it comes to their holiday ham. Pick Szeged forecasts a price increase for 2012 – because of elevated base material prices and the new 27-percent VAT. PICK will focus on selling Békebeli products in the 2012 Easter season, the basic pillars of this assortment are spare rib, tied ham and shoulder. Last year they also added Frikandó ham and round ham to the Békebeli product family. Both products are available in vacuum foil packaging and have a 45-day shelf life. Around the holiday season Pick Szeged will try to reach consumers with a more active promotion policy, organising chain-specific price promotions supported with ads in chains’ leaflets. There will be no changes in the Kométa portfolio this season, Kemencés Sült (Oven Baked) products will play the main role: Kemencés Sült ham, spare rib and knuckle. Other ham products, such as Tirol ham (which is matured for a long time), premium quality Prague ham or thigh ham also sell better in the Easter period. Kométa urges retailers to give preference to domestic product in the holiday season too, since consumers are starting to realise that reliable Hungarian brands are far better than no name foreign products. Kométa plans no special promotional activities for the Easter period. Éva Tamáskovitsné Gila, marketing manager with Gyulai Húskombinát Zrt. told our magazine that in the Great Plain region sausage is as important on the Easter table as ham. This explains why their sausage sales also improve a bit in this period; in the company’s portfolio we only find one ham, the Hungarian Product Grand Prize winner Mályvád ham, which is mandolin-shaped and cooked in a machine, but made with artisan technology.