Pork Consumption in Europe

In almost all countries of the European Union, pork is the most widely consumed type of meat. The only exception is Great Britain, where a little more poultry meat is preferred. Spain has the highest per capita consumption with 69,6 kg, but Germany also has quite a high consumption with 54 kg. These figures come from the recently published brochure Core Figures Cattle, Meat and Eggs 7, published by the Dutch Livestock, Meat and Egg Economic Groups.

The economic groups have compiled the figures on pork consumption in the European Union on the basis of information from Eurostat and the national statistics of the member states. However, the information must be interpreted with some caution. In practice, it turns out that the actual consumption is much lower than the calculated consumption. Consumption was determined on the basis of bone-in meat and including use as pet food. Calculations carried out in the Netherlands have made it clear that actual consumption is around half of consumption.

In Spain, Germany and Italy there was a slight increase in pork consumption in 2003. For the entire European Union, consumption stabilized at 43 kg per capita (see graph below).

Graphic: Dutch Meat Board

The economic groups have not given a forecast for the consumption of pork for the year 2004. However, livestock, meat and egg business groups expect the avian flu outbreak in Asia, Canada and the US and the BSE problem in Canada and the US to certainly affect world poultry and beef trade by the end of 2004. As a result, the international demand for pork will be stronger in 2004 than in the previous year. In addition, the accession of the ten new member states on May 1, 2004 will likely increase sales in these countries. It is therefore to be expected that the 2004 earnings prices will be higher than those of 2003.

Source: Düsseldorf [dmb]