The Annual Meat Conference gathers the meat industry together to examine the state of the industry, glean consumer trends and insights and network with partners and stakeholders. Our team were in it to win it this year in National Harbor, Maryland, attending sessions, hosting meetings and looking to get a leg up on the year ahead. We asked them to give us their top takeaways for retailers.
The Power of Meat (POM) presentation at AMC is one of those decks that gets referred to all year long as a one-stop shop for insights into the meat category with consumers and at retail. The other presos also contained actionable insights for attendees, and we picked our top takeaways here:
- Takeaway #1: Meat is on fire! The headline numbers from POM are pretty eye-popping. The meat department reached a record $112 billion in retail sales in 2025, with dollar gains of 6.8% alongside 2.0% pound growth. Despite high costs and all the economic headwinds facing consumers, meat was the largest and fastest-growing fresh perimeter department in 2025. More households were buying meat, shopped for it more often, and spent more per trip. (Circana MULO+).
- Takeaway #2: What’s driving the growth? To a large degree it’s the power of protein as a health & wellness driver for a vast share of the population. 71% of consumers are focused on consuming protein! Shoppers see meat as an all-around nutrient powerhouse and an overall healthy choice for strength, energy and overall wellness...and they crave the taste of meat.
- Takeaway #3: How do Aussie meats fit in? Right now Aussie meats are helping fill supply gaps left by historically low domestic production across the red meat category. Beyond simple availability, Australian beef and lamb fill a growing niche in meats with environmental and health-related claims, from grassfed to regenerative. As the POM study attests, these claims are especially relevant with millennial and gen-z shoppers, who over-index for interest and willingness to pay more for them.
- Takeaway #4: How can retailers get their share of meat’s growth? One of the best categories is grinds, as an everyday, value-driven format that consumers know and love. A presentation from Circana and Cargill showed that the optimal retail meat assortment put grinds in their own section, with a wide range of options across proteins and attributes, like grassfed beef and lamb. The key is appeal to younger and more diverse shoppers, who are looking for protein variety and formats they are comfortable and confident with.
There you have it! It’s almost like you were there, without leaving home. For recipe ideas and other retail tools and resources to take these insights into action, check out more here on our retail site!