Newsletter No. 40 – July 2006 Item 1 & 2

The rapid growth of meat consumption since 1961 and projected growth to 2025, as we discussed here, highlights the high proportion of the growth coming from the pig and poultry meat industries.  This illustrates the tremendous efficiencies that these industries have achieved over the past few decades.  Figure 1 illustrates those changes.

Figure 1 – Global meat Production by Type. 2025 Projected

Figure 2 illustrates the breakdown of the type of meat consumed in the different regions of the world.  The distribution of the growth is not available but the majority of the projected increased production will come from the developing countries rather than simply population growth.

The regions are set alongside each other for ease of comparison as they show clearly the trends in the different regions; trends in total consumption and the variations in type of meat consumed in the regions.

Figure 2 – Meat Consumption by Region and Type (sources of data)

There are several important elements to observe when viewing these graphs, which will be discussed over the next few postings:

a.    Rate of Growth over the period
b.    Total Tonnage (left axis of graph), as these do vary from graph to graph
c.    Variation of type of meat consumed in the different regions
d.    Other meats, shown in green, is the sector into which Ostrich meat currently falls