Supermarket game sales soar

Sales of pigeon, pheasant, partridge and venison are booming — and restaurants are also benefiting from the trend towards wild eating

Sales of game in restaurants and supermarkets are booming as customers choose wild alternatives to traditional farmed meats.

UK supermarkets are reporting record sales of game. A spokesman for Marks & Spencer told Shooting Times: “We have had our biggest ever season on game, with sales up 20 per cent on last year.”

The game season in

Marks & Spencer runs until the end of March, dependent on availability, and its top-selling products include woodpigeon breasts, stuffed pheasant breast joints, partridge breast fillets and rabbit, pheasant and partridge casserole.

Iceland has also started selling game through its Food Warehouse stores, which are now offering pheasant roulade and a three-bird roast. Iceland, which has built a strong reputation for the sourcing of the ingredients, confirmed to Shooting Times that it is sourcing its game in the UK.

Venison has experienced particularly strong growth. Upmarket supermarket Waitrose has seen a 35 per cent uptick in venison sales since last year.

The estimated 3,000 tonnes of wild red deer venison produced in Scotland every year has proved insufficient to meet market requirements and as a result the meat is being imported from Europe and New Zealand to meet demand.

This growth comes on top of several previous years of booming sales. Remarkably, in summer 2014, analyst Kantar Worldpanel reported a huge spike in UK venison sales, with an increase of more than 400 per cent over the previous year.

Restaurant game sales have also grown strongly, with game no longer the exclusive preserve of country pubs. The Woodsman, a restaurant being opened by chef and deer stalker Mike Robinson, epitomises the trend towards wild eating. The restaurant’s signature dishes will include Cotswold fallow deer pavé, as well as slowcooked and glazed shoulder of roe deer. Mr Robinson told the Daily Telegraph: “Game is on the rise. When I started cooking with wild food and game 15 years ago, I was one of the only ones. Now I hardly know a British restaurant or pub that doesn’t have it on the menu in the winter months.”

“M&S game sales were up 20 per cent and Waitrose has seen a 35 per cent uptick in venison sales”

M&S has reported good sales of pheasant, partridge and pigeon breasts

Game on the rise: venison experienced particularly strong growth in 2018