Demand for meat falls 2.4% in Spain
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, between November 2017 and October 2018, Spaniards have consumed 2.12 million tons of meat and meat products, 2.4% less than the previous period. The purchases’ value was 14,192 million €, a figure similar to the previous year’s expense. Once again, the tendency to reduce meat purchases is clearly marked and only the increase in prices maintains the value of what is consumed.
In the reference period, of the total food purchase, the expenditure on meat and meat products accounted for 21%.
Of the total households consumption, 72% corresponded to fresh meats (1.54 million tons; -3%). Of these, the most purchased was chicken meat (580,506 tons; -2.3%), followed by pork (459,129 tons; -2.3%). The categories with higher prices, such as beef and sheep/goats, were the ones which lost most, -5.2% (225,620 tons) and -5.6% (65,268 tons) respectively.
Frozen meat has also seen its consumption reduced by 9.5%, reaching 51,019 tons.
Regarding processed meat, its demand is the only positive trend, with a rise of 1.3% to 531,015 tons.
As for the purchases value, of a total of 14,192 million € spent by the Spanish households, two third came from fresh meat. It is important to emphasize the increase in the price of chicken meat, since, despite consuming 2.3% less, the value of its purchases increased by 2.3%. The main subcategory within fresh meat is pork, which with 2,709 million €, maintaining the same value as the previous period.
Considering per capita consumption, it remains stable (46.49 kg/person) in relation to the same period of the previous year, although it has been reduced by 6.2 kg/person compared to only six years ago.
Source: eurocarne.com