Meat consumption has been a common thing all over the world. Humans started consuming meat since the Stone Age, and also continued in the Fire Age too. Back in the Stone Age, men used to be the hunters and gatherers of the meat. Mainly, they used to consume raw meat and fish as they didn’t have any knowledge about cooking and fire.
But the game changed, as humans invented fire. They understood that by rubbing stones together for multiple times, they can create fire and they can roast the meat in the same fire. Fire made the food tasty and humans could digest the meat pretty easily. Since then, meat consumption has become exemplary.
As per the recent survey conducted by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), pork is the widely eaten meat across the globe (36%). Poultry (33%), beef (24%) and goat/sheep/lamb (5%) are been consumed. So here’s the list with data recorded in 2023.
7. Israel (97.02kg/person)
As per the reports in 2022, the meat consumption in Israel increased by 6%. Recently, they launched few plant-based meat brands and TVCs to spread awareness, but the significant switch is yet to be noticed.
6. Spain 100.26kg/person)
Though Spain has a deep routed Mediterranean style of cooking and since its located on the Mediterranean Sea, fish is widely consumed. But pork and beef are consumed here too. As it is a popular travel destination, many people look for meat at most of the restaurants to devour more.
5. New Zealand (100.9kg/person)
Though New Zealand is a small country with a small population compared to other countries in the list, but still they are not only among the highest consumer of the meat but also one of the highest producers of the meat too. They are famous for cattle and sheep rearing all over the world.
4. Argentina (109.39kg/person)
People might remember Argentina as one of the best soccer playing country in the world as they produced best soccer players, but you cannot ignore them for been the fourth highest meat consumer in the world. It’s a saying that your Argentina trip is incomplete if you didn’t eat Beef Napolitana, Matambre a la pizza and Matambre relleno. This proves the quantity of meat consumption along with its popularity.
3. Australia (121.61kg/person)
Australia is also a very popular tourist destination and people from all over the world visit Australia to observe its rich culture and cuisine. Meade O’Meara, an Australian food journalist, food writer and food critic mentioned this multiple times in her food programs on television that you can easily find Asian restaurants, American, European, Middle Eastern and African restaurants throughout Australia as you can find population from these countries over here. So the meat consumption is also pretty high, as per the cuisines and requirement at the restaurants and for home cooking.
2. USA (124.11kg/person)
As many of us already know that USA secures the third position in the list of highest population in the world, the meat consumption is very popular over there. They widely eat pork, beef, lamb, turkey and ox. They also have the biggest slaughter house in the world in Chicago. USA holds the second position as a meat producer in the world with 46,832,946 tonnes of meat a year.
1. Hong Kong (137.08kg/person)
I was sort of shocked to see Hong Kong topping this list but the survey data is pretty much accurate. World Economic Forum says that Hong Kong consumes about 137.08kg meat per person. As of now in 2023, Hong Kong collected US$7.45bn as revenue in the meat market. The experts are expecting the market to grow annually by 5.60% till 2028 as per the CAGR report.
I’m equally glad to see that India is not standing in this list as of now. In India, meat is consumed on an average of 3.91Kg/person as majority of the India population are vegetarian. Though India is a huge meat producer in the world, but most of the Indians don’t consume meat so regularly. But in the coming years, the experts are opining that the consumption of meat can reduce and the consumption of plant-based or the lab-grown meat will be increased. So hopefully, we can see a significant jump of data over here.
Wow, I am very happy about that India is not in this list.
Thank you for your beautiful valuable efforts acknowledge for everyone.