Global Trends in Meat Production, Trade and Consumption

Kozák, János

Keywords: food security, animal product, meat production, meat consumption, meat market

The world’s population more than doubled between 1960 and 2010. The production of basic foods such as meat has even surpassed the world’s population. Global crisis phenomena and animal epidemics have caused temporary breakdowns in the dynamics of production. Epidemics have led to market problems and have affected the global trade and consumption of meat. Increases in the production and globalisation of the meat market have increased the access to meat products. As income grows (within limits), food consumption tends to change in favour of meat products. However, there are large regional disparities in global meat consumption. Average per capita meat consumption reaches about 80 kg per year in the developed regions but only 37 kg in the developing ones. With the growth in the world’s population and per capita GDP (besides other factors), meat production from all livestock species has increased, although at a reducing rate in recent years. The dynamics of total meat production have been surpassed by that of poultry and pig meat. Thus, meat production has changed in favour of livestock fed grains including cereals suitable also for direct human consumption. Their expansion can therefore compromise food security; though poultry, having excellent feed conversion rates, provide humans with cheaper animal proteins. Nevertheless, the increasing proportion of livestock foods in the human diet is of concern as their production entails more resources (land, water and feed) compared to those foods they substitute. Therefore meat production from livestock should increase with the most favourable resource requirement and environmental impact per unit of product, since only this can sustain a long-term product expansion in economic and environmental respects. Also worth reconsidering is the role of meat in the human diet, especially where meat consumption is already high. However, the justification of increasing meat consumption may be questionable due to ethical aspects and challenges to food security, the utilisation of cereals in particular.

Full article