Number One for meat --- that’s Asia in 2018

by VIV market reporters

Asia-Pacific as a region has produced over 44 percent of the world’s meat during the past 12 months. The region also has consumed or utilized nearly 48 percent of all meats produced worldwide.

Those numbers confirming Asia-Pacific as Number One in the world meat market come from a November 2018 Food Outlook report by United Nations food-agriculture organization FAO. The same UN agency has identified key meat market trends in a separate review. It says these include global meat output growing by 1.5 percent during 2018, which it calls the fastest pace of annual growth since 2014.

It’s a fact
The 140.7 million metric tonnes of meat forecast to have been produced in Asia in 2018 has been a combination of 66.9 million tonnes pork, 43.1 million tonnes poultry meat, 19.6 million tonnes beef and 11.1 million tonnes of other meats, on numbers compiled by FAO.

Pork is the clear winner in terms of increased global volume in 2018, according to the meat market review. Poultry meat comes in second place in volume growth terms. But the fastest percentage rate of growth has been shown by beef, ahead of pork and chicken in that order.

Where do the countries of the Asia-Pacific region stand in all this? The FAO reports say, for example, that there are expectations of a strong recovery of the meat sector in...