Rabbit Meat UK Prices

Rabbit Meat UK Prices

How Much does Rabbit Meat Cost in the UK?

As of early 2022, the price of rabbit per Kg ranged from USD 4.58 to USD 4.97. Regarding its price in British pound sterling is about GPB 3.3 per Kg. The price in the Capital city (London) and Birmingham, the price is about USD 4581 per tonne.  The whole price of rabbit meat is from USD 4.58 per Kg, in British pound sterling the price is about GPB 3.3 per Kg (Wamucii, 2021).

Is there a demand for rabbit meat in UK?

Regarding demand of rabbit meat, the year 2020 oversaw supply of about 325 tonnes of rabbit meat. Even though rabbits after poultry are the most efficient proteins convertors in cellulose based plants into food with animal protein of high value, its consumption has seen decrease in demand. The demand is low as most people do not like consuming rabbit meat. The reason behind low demand of rabbit meat in the UK is that the culture of people from UK view rabbits as wild animals.

Places to Buy Rabbit Meat in the UK

One of the places one can acquire rabbit meat in the UK is from online stores. Today, most hotels and retailers have gone online (Dalle, 2014). In the UK, there are online stores that deal with rabbit meat among other meat products and they deliver to the user’s location. Another place where rabbit meat is available for purchase is in farmers markets that are many across UK (BBC, 2022). The third alternative of buying rabbit meat is from farmers directly via. Farmer who rear rabbits may sell rabbit as an animal or as sliced into pieces. This depends on the client. In addition, some of the supermarkets across UK do sell rabbit meat. 

Farmed Rabbit Meat in the UK

Rabbits are mainly farmed in cages (European Union, 2017). There are minimum standards for protection of farmed rabbit in the UK. There has been slight rise of farmed meat recently that is supplied via backyards farms or direct sales. Farmed rabbits help provide employment and support economy, especially in the rural areas. However, the challenge of reduced demand for rabbit meat has affect the price of farmed rabbits. Some other systems of used in farming rabbit include pen house systems. This system is different from that of cages as it allows rabbits to express natural behaviors and rabbit meat sourced from pen housing system is more expensive and is considered different at retail level.

Rabbit Meat UK Export market prices and Export values

The production systems of rabbits are mainly driven by market demand locally or as exports. Regarding rabbit meat UK quantities of export, 2020 oversaw 325 tons of rabbit meat shipped by United Kingdom. There was surge of rabbit demand of rabbit meat compared to other products by about 3.77 percent in 2019 when compared to the previous year (Cullere et al. 2018). The exports of rabbit meat in the UK between 2017 and 2019 decreased by almost seven percent. The following bar graph is category of edible offal of rabbits as from 2010 to 2020 (Wamucii, 2021).

Figure 1: UK rabbit meat export in tonnes .

Regarding the export values of rabbit meant in the United Kingdom, rabbit of value $2.3m was shipped in 2019 while that of 2018 was $2.4, a drop of about 4.4 percent. The top export markets for rabbit meat from UK are the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The following table displays exports value in ‘000 USD.

References

BBC. (2022). Residents fear rabbit farm plan in Nottinghamshire. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-13079803

Cullere, M., & Dalle Zotte, A. (2018). Rabbit meat production and consumption: State of knowledge and future perspectives. Meat Science, 143, 137-146.

Dalle Zotte, A. (2014). Rabbit farming for meat purposes. Animal Frontiers, 4(4), 62-67.

European Union. (2017). Overview Report: Commercial Rabbit Farming in the European Union.

Wamucii, S. (2021). United Kingdom (UK) Rabbit Meat Market Insights. Retrieved from https://www.selinawamucii.com/insights/market/united-kingdom/rabbit-meat/