Australians are about to spend up a storm on Christmas feasts, with tonnes of holiday food to be purchased amid warnings to get in early, with particular products already selling fast.
The big centrepieces of Christmas are expected to be bought in unprecedented numbers, with Australians looking to splash out on hams and turkeys.
The nation is expected to spend $15.56m on 1.83 million kilos of half leg ham and there will be more than 55,000 whole turkeys flying off the shelves.
Woolworths is recommending to those who are keen to carve up one of its hams on Christmas Day to get in early as sales are already ahead of forecast.
The demand for plant-based roast alternatives is also strong, with the supermarket expecting 12,000 of the Plantitude roasts to be sold.
Tonnes of seafood are also expected to be on the menu, with prawns, oysters and lobsters to be on many shopping lists.
Woolworths expects 600 tonnes of Australian tiger prawns will be sold, as well as more than one million oysters and 180,000 lobsters.
Christmas is when most Aussies decide to splurge on seafood, with the supermarket selling 10 times the amount of prawns in the week leading up to the holiday and 1.2 million kilos over the month of December.
Despite shortages of fruit, there are also more than 850,000 kilos of cherries and 2.8 million mangoes set to be sold.
Many of those will go on top of the more than 440,000 pavlova bases expected to be sold.
There will also be 920,000 Christmas puddings, 639,000 rum balls and almost 12 million fruit mince pies sold across the festive season.
The supermarket has also kept the cost of some of its most popular Christmas items at the same price as 2021 as Australians battle inflation.
“Through our price commitment to hold last year’s prices on customers’ favourite Christmas classics, including Woolworths half leg ham and pavlova, as well as adding 150 seasonal essentials to our Christmas Prices Dropped program, we hope all of our customers enjoy the little moments with family and friends that make the season special to them,“ managing director of Woolworths Natalie Davis said.
Among products like ham and seafood which could sell out at some stores, there are others Australians are keen to get their hands on.
“Products like our Woolworths Gold Gin Infused Fruit Mince Tarts, featuring native Australian flavours like Davidson Plum, and our Gold Chocolate and Hazelnut Pudding, prove popular each year and can sell out by the time we reach Christmas,” Ms Davis said.
“And with just a couple of weeks until Christmas, we recommend customers keep an eye out at their local Woolworths as we continue to launch new products – including our Woolworths Christmas Smash Cake, to make the festive season all the more delicious.”
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