The worldwide poultry meat production developments that occurred between 1990 and 2007 have made a big impact on the changing global trade patterns, industry analysts conclude.

This formed the basis of an analysis over this past period from a regional perspective, and an outlook until 2018.

In 1990, global beef exports were still much higher than pork and poultry meat exports. In the following 16 years, the contribution of the meat types to the global trade volume changed considerably. Between 1990 and 2006, mainly a result of the very high growth rates in chicken meat trade, the trade volume of pork increased from 2.8 to 7.8 million tonnes, or by 175%, and poultry meat from 2.7 to 11.0 million tonnes, or by 313%. This expansion reflects the dynamics in poultry meat production. Beef only ranked in third place with a trade volume of 6.3 million tonnes.

Between 1990 and 2006, the volume of global poultry meat exports increased by 8.4 million tonnes. In the same period, imports grew from 2.7 to 10.6 million tonnes. Europe lost 21% of its former share of global exports. Meanwhile, the contribution of North America to global exports increased by 4.9% and that of Latin America by 16.2%. The shifts in poultry meat imports were not that dramatic.

Quite obviously, poultry meat has become a basic food - it is a quality protein product at relatively low price. Also, as there are hardly any religious taboos regarding this type of meat, a growing number of countries import poultry meat because they are not able to meet the increasing demand by means of domestic production. The fact that five of the leading exporting countries are located in Europe documents the leading role of this continent, even though their export volumes are much lower than that of the two American countries. Russia and Japan are located in the first two positions in poultry meat imports. Russia has not yet reached its former production volume, and Japan is hardly able to increase its domestic production because of high production costs and the lack of space for large production units. China and Hong Kong rank well in exports and in imports, which is due to the fact that large amounts are traded between Hong Kong and mainland China.

In 2006, the countries in North and South America had a trade surplus of almost five million tonnes. This was highest in South America, followed by the three NAFTA member countries. Central America and the Caribbean were deficit regions.

In spite of a production volume of 13.3 million tonnes, European countries were not able to meet domestic demand in 2006. The trade deficit amounted to 1.3 million tonnes, with the highest in Eastern Europe with 1.5 million tonnes and Northern Europe with 0.4 million tonnes; only Western European countries showed a surplus of 0.7 million tonnes.

In 2006, the Asian poultry meat deficit was almost as high as 2.5 million tonnes. East Asia had a deficit of 1.5 and West Asia 1.1 million tonnes. Only Southeast Asia showed a surplus of 266,000 tonnes.