Changes in United Kingdom meat demand

Abstract

The research covered by this report was completed in order to allow an improved understanding of the United Kingdom retail meat market, with special emphasis on lamb and mutton. The report presents some reworked price elasticities of demand (using the meat demand model developed by Philpott and Matheson, 1965) for the United Kingdom market. The total market has been included in the study as it was not possible to obtain separate data for New Zealand lamb. This may have some bearing on the results, but it is considered that the overall picture will still be useful. Section 2 of the report covers the background to the present United Kingdom / European Economic Community - New Zealand lamb market relationship and reviews an important study completed in the United Kingdom in 1979. A full description of the demand model is given in the next section followed by a review of the methodology used, the results obtained and the conclusions. The final section discusses the implications of the findings.