Per capita meat consumption has fallen by 5.8% in France since 2003: a decline which particularly affects beef

Average meat consumption per capita has fallen by 5.8% in twenty years in France. VLG/Getty Images

Average meat consumption per capita has fallen by 5.8% in twenty years in France, a decline which particularly affects beef (-19% since 2003), according to an official statistical note published Thursday June 27, 2024.

Last year, average meat consumption stood at 83.5 kg carcass equivalent per inhabitant, reports a summary released by the statistics department of the Ministry of Agriculture. ;#39;Agriculture, Agreste, and the public establishment FranceAgriMer.

Across France, total meat consumption (beef, pork, poultry, lamb, etc.) has increased in twenty years but less quickly than the population, which leads to that everyone eats less meat on average.

The decline is significant for beef

The decline is significant for beef: consumption was on average 26.3 kg carcass equivalent (kgec) per capita in 2003, compared to 21.3 kgec last year, a drop of 19%.

The measurement in kg carcass equivalent does not accurately reflect what the French eat as it includes fat and bones, and some of it is wasted.

Between 2022 and 2023, a period of high inflation, total meat consumption (raw or prepared, at home or outside) fell by 1.4% after two consecutive years increase "corresponding to the post-Covid-19 economic recovery". Meat imports also decreased by 1.4% year-on-year.

Beef and pork consumption have reached their "lowest level" for twenty years or more. Conversely, "consumption of meat poultry returns to its upward trajectory observed for twenty years".< /p>

Chicken is increasingly gaining ground on plates (28% of total meat consumption in 2023, compared to 14% in 2003).

"In order to satisfy domestic demand for chicken meat, France is increasingly resorting to imports (+4.4% in 2023), is -it belongs. In 2023, imports will cover 50% of chicken meat consumption. They come primarily from Poland and Belgium."