Farming: Christmas price surge ‘a fallacy’

Beef producers tend to believe that the run up to Christmas sees prices move upwards but statistics do not bear that belief out according to Quality Meat Scotland’s own marketing guru, Stuart Ashworth.

“There is a general perception of a significant price movement in the run up to Christmas. However, the biggest movement in recent years was in 2010 when the average price increased by 5 per cent between the beginning of November and the second week of January.”

“But a look at prices over the past few years suggests that 2010 was an unusual year. You have to go back to 2006 to see a similar increase during November.

“It is much more usual to see a rise of 1-1.5 per cent during November.