Australia was once the world’s meat-eating capital – at one point even surpassing the United States to the title of the world’s most voracious meat-eaters. But in the last few years, Australians seem to have lost its hunger for meat.
According to the latest figures from the Organisation of Economic Development and Co-operation and UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Australians devoured 92.57 kilograms of meat per person in 2019, 7.98 kilograms less per person than the Americans.
Now let’s look more closely at the Australian dinner tables. Australia’s meat consumption has managed to creep upwards the past two decades due to Australians insatiable appetite for chicken and pork.
During the 1960s, the total meat consumption per capita in Australia was stable and people were consuming 110 kilograms of meat per person per year.
Yet, according to historical data from researchers Wong et al and new data from the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences, the type of meat being consumed has significantly changed with chicken and pork far outstripping beef, mutton, and lamb.
As a result of our changing appetites, today Australians are consuming twice as much pork compared to the 1980s, and the Australian chicken industry produces around 600 million chickens a year – which are mostly consumed domestically.
Different patterns of meat consumption around the world can tell us a story about the rich and poor. Normally, when income rises so too does an individual’s consumption of meat.
For most countries, on average, people consume between 65 kg to 90 kg of meat per person per year.
Cultural preferences also produce some notable exceptions to the ‘more money, more meat’ pattern, such as India where religious preferences mean up to 40% percent of the population do not eat meat; and Malaysia and China, where meat consumption is far higher than would be expected from each country’s income.
Worldwide, chicken is now the world’s favourite meat, having surpassed pork in 2007- a trend mostly driven by meat preferences among the wealthy nations. Chicken has been the preferred meat among many countries since 2000. For instance, if we look at Israel, they are currently consuming 64.9 kg of meat per person per year.
Moreover, if we look further, China and Vietnam- two of the world’s fastest-rising meat-eating nations – ate the most pork of any nation in 2014, with the Chinese even surpassing the European claim to the No.1 ranking in 2013.
