Chicken increasingly on Midsummer menu in Estonia

According to meat producers, Estonian Midsummer menus have remained fairly consistent with what they were a decade ago, but consumption of chicken has been picking up in recent years. Consumers are, however, buying fewer domestic meat products than before.
Simmo Kruustükk, marketing and sales director at Nõo Meat Factory, said that the week of Midsummer, people in Estonia consume twice as much meat as usual – a combined estimated total of 5,000 metric tons.
"In recent years, the trend, we believe, remains that Estonians are no longer buying meat products in advance; rather, they leave their purchase decisions up to the final days [ahead of Midsummer]," Kruustükk said. "Estonians have traditionally been very fond of pork, but we've noticed the consumption of chicken has grown in recent years."
He also noted that people are making much more informed food choices than before, and they're carefully examining food labels at the store.
According to Kruustükk, demand remains particularly high for grilled sausages, which he estimates are produced in greater quantities than even grilled meat and shashlik.
"Estonians have actually always loved uncooked sausages; they contain more meat," he added.
Atria Eesti CEO Meelis Laande, meanwhile, highlighted that consumers in Estonia are no longer buying as much domestically-raised meat as they used to.
"It must be said – the main criterion is still price," Laande said. "I.e. how much a product costs, and it may be that goods produced from local raw materials are more expensive, but they may not be."
He did point out, however, that people in Estonia are still eating as much meat around Midsummer as they were a decade ago.
"People are still consuming more or less as many grilled sausages, as much grilled meat, preseasoned meat," the CEO said. "If there are any changes, they'll more likely be related to the weather. When the weather is bad, people tend to eat more grilled sausages. If the weather's good after all, then grilled meat is quite popular too."
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Editor: Mari Peegel, Aili Vahtla