October 10, 2023

 

Beef, pork consumption to fall in EU in 2023

 

 

Consumption of beef and pork will decrease in the European Union this year, while the consumption of poultry meat will increase, according to the latest short-term outlook of agricultural markets from the European Commission.

 

According to the autumn outlook, published on October 9, overall per capita consumption of meat will decrease by 1.5% in 2023 due to price inflation and lower supply. The decrease will be stronger for beef consumption (down 3.5%) and pork (down 5.2%), while consumption of poultry meat will grow by 4.3%.

 

Across the EU generally, prices for beef and poultry remain high due to lower supply. Poultry remains one of the cheapest sources of protein for consumers, supported by recovered production.

 

Meanwhile, EU milk deliveries remain fairly stable and are estimated to increase slightly by 0.3% in 2023. The prices of EU raw milk have been declining since the beginning of the year. Even though prices for energy, fertilisers, and feed costs are slowly starting to decrease across the EU, they remain high and are resulting in continuing tight margins for dairy farmers across EU member states.

 

EU exports of dairy are unlikely to expand this year due to decreasing demand from China. Therefore, extra volumes of dairy are likely to be consumed domestically, showing a higher resistance to increasing prices than other products of animal origin.

 

EU cereal production for 2023 and 2024 is expected to be 4.3% below the average for the previous five years, at 268.5 million tonnes. This is due to adverse weather conditions over spring and summer that especially impacted corn and barely production.

 

Feed use of cereals may remain stable this year, while the use of cereals for biofuel production may continue growing and could reach 12% usage above 2022 to 2023 levels.

 

The EU continues to be a net exporter of cereals, notably wheat. Exports to the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa in particular have increased in previous months.

 

EU oilseed production is performing particularly strongly, running at 11% above the five-year average, driven by a recovery in sunflower production, as well higher soybean production.

 

Improved grassland conditions and lower feed costs provided some relief to livestock producers in the bloc, despite the expected lower-than-average meat production.

 

- Agriland