Haggis sales are booming as people choose to stay home for Burns Night

Love it or loathe it, haggis will adorn dinner plates across the world tonight.

Scotland’s national dish will be celebrated as thousands of families sit down to celebrate Burns Night.

Haggis – a mix of sheep’s heart, liver, and lungs combined with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices – was once a nifty cost-saving hack for farmhands of the north.

Making use of every part of the sheep was a way of making food go further and last longer.

But has the divisive dish been impacted by today’s cost of living crisis?

Tinned haggis sales have reached their highest levels since 2018 and Aldi has launched a budget range of Burns Night specials.

Some say this is down to more people celebrating the Scottish poet at home, rather than out at events.

Simon Howie, based in Perth, runs The Scottish Butcher brand.

The company’s factory in the village of Dunning has the capacity to produce around 30,000 haggis per day – be it regular, vegetarian or gluten free varieties.

Mr Howie told Metro.co.uk: ‘Sales of haggis are up but profits are slightly down due to the increased costs. Everyone is in the same boat.

‘We have faced price increases from our suppliers as well as our energy prices increasing to 10 times what they were last year but we have worked really hard not to pass the full impact for the increased costs on to the customer.

‘We can see that the retailers have done the same.’

Jack Hamilton runs Mash Direct, based in Northern Ireland.

Their haggis based products are booming – but it’s also the likes of mashed tatties and neeps that are seeing better sales than usual.

People could be taking steps to bring down costs where possible and avoid the timely process of boiling and mashing their own, he suggested.

Jack told Metro.co.uk: ‘In January, we found that supermarkets were getting very busy again.

‘Turnip sales, or swedes as they are known in some other places, have been doing especially well in the last couple of days.

‘We think it is because more people are having Burns Nights at home, that’s the only reason why turnip would be doing well.’

Jack confirmed ‘plenty haggis’ is going out the door for suppliers and food manufactures across the UK.

But for many, it’s the energy bills crisis that is the real concern.

He added: ‘The energy crisis is widespread in the industry now. It does take a bit of energy to make mashed tatties and the like, but we’re using energy people don’t have to use at home.

‘Everyone has had to batten down the hatches in the food industry for more than a year now. But we know our role, and want to make sure we aren’t passing on those extra costs.

‘It’s been really interesting the last few months, if you’d asked me in November I’d have told you that people would be spending more time at home cooking.

‘But what we saw was that restaurants we supply to, especially in the south of England, were booming over Christmas.

‘We were surprised, there was more confidence than we thought there would be. But might have been more the Covid impact than the cost of living crisis.’

As prices continue to hike across the UK – overall food price inflation averaged 13.3% in December – more people may be turning to quick, easy and energy efficient meals at home.

Rather than spend holidays, such as Burns Nights, out at events – this trend may continue.

With rising costs causing more people to pull back on celebrations, Grant’s Foods reckons Burns events will make the move away from larger get-togethers in favour of personal gatherings at home – or even virtual meet-ups.

A spokesperson for Grant’s told the ScottishGrocer: ‘The cost-of-living crisis is affecting millions of Scots across the country, many of whom have been forced to rely on food banks to help feed their families.

‘As a result, they may not be able to partake in the festivities celebrating Rabbie Burns.

‘To ensure everyone in our local community can celebrate Burns Night, we’re donating hundreds of cans of Grant’s Premium Haggis to our local food banks in time for 25 January.’

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