Butter sales boom as Australians forced to stay home during Covid
Are you adding extra butter to the shopping list? New research from Dairy Australia shows you’re not alone in the coronavirus era.
Buttered scones and cream cakes got Australia through the coronavirus chaos of 2020 — and it appears the extra dollop of dairy is here to stay.
New figures from Dairy Australia have revealed nine out of 10 dairy categories monitored by Nielsen Homescan enjoyed sales success in the past 12 months, with butter a stand-out.
Sales of generic-branded butter rose 8.7 per cent between April 2020 and April 2021, neatly dovetailing with the first coronavirus lockdowns and the recent spate of restrictions still gripping parts of the country.
Sales of branded butter did even better, rising 10.1 per cent during the same period.
Dairy Australia market analyst Sofia Omstedt said many Australians picked up new kitchen skills during the first coronavirus lockdown period in March-April 2020.
“Many people took the opportunity to experiment with new recipes during the first lockdown and many of those recipes included butter or other dairy products,” she said.
“Restaurants and cafes were takeaway only (during the lockdown period) but many Australians still wanted the desserts and cakes that they used to eat when they were dining out. Butter is a great product for baking and forms the base of many delicious recipes, so that’s a big reason why we’ve seen those sales increase.”
The gap between generic and branded dairy products was not limited to butter. The ‘everyday-style cheese’ category rose 0.3 per cent in the generic segment during the 12-month survey period and 9 per cent in the branded segment.
There was less contrast in the two yoghurt categories, with generic regular yoghurt increasing 1.7 per cent over 12 months and 3.3 per cent in the branded segment over the same period, although branded Greek yoghurt performed markedly better.
The only surveyed segment to decline between April 2020 and April 2021 was generic fresh milk with a 0.7 per cent contraction in sales.
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