The Growing Global Hunger For Meat

Global demand for meat has been growing for decades. As data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows, global meat production has increased fivefold since the 1960s. For 2023, the FAO forecasts the amount of meat produced to be around 364 million tons. According to the FAO, the Covid-19 crisis led to many disruptions in production and supply chains. However, this did not lead to a decline in global production: Even during the pandemic, the upward trend in production volume continued, as this infographic illustrates.

In the past few years, a change in global agriculture could be observed. The production costs of meat became lower due to the increasing production of animal feed such as soy or corn, thus increasing the supply of meat in many countries. Especially in the populous countries of Asia, the demand for different types of meat increased. Asia is the largest meat producing market, with a focus on pork and poultry - also the two most produced types of meats in the world ahead of beef and ovine meat, which includes sheep and lamb.