Amna Puri-Mirza
Research Expert covering the Middle East
Livestock sector in the GCC - statistics & facts
Livestock farming, including animal husbandry, is an important agricultural industry sector. Livestock and their by-products are used for human consumption, and the agricultural value chain leads to economic interests worldwide.
Animal husbandry started with general farming activities during the agricultural revolution some 12 thousand years ago in the fertile crescent of the Middle East.
While the agricultural revolution created the first permanent human settlements (as people stayed with their crops to tend over and protect them), keeping livestock was still agreeable with a nomadic lifestyle, especially in a region where water was scarce. Sheep were the first animal to be domesticated in the area and, to this day, play an essential role in the livestock sector of the Middle East. Besides sheep, lamb, and mutton, the leading livestock animals within the Gulf Cooperation Council region are goats, cattle, camels, and chickens.
Animal by-products
Dairy and eggs are the leading animal by-products produced in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. Saudi Arabia leads the livestock sector in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, mainly in the production of animal products. Most recently, more than 5.2 billion eggs were produced in Saudi Arabia, followed by 1.3 billion eggs in Kuwait and 1.1 billion in the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia’s production volume of dairy was over two billion liters. According to projections, Saudi Arabia’s production volume of dairy will continue to increase in the coming years.Meat sector
The Gulf Cooperation Councils’ domestic livestock sector cannot entirely fulfill the demand for meat consumption and therefore relies on meat imports. Saudi Arabia, the leading market in the region, can only cover 43 percent of poultry and 66 percent of the red meat demand of its population. An essential factor for the meat sector in the Gulf Cooperation Council is the production or import of halal meat, as the majority of people in the region are Muslim. The import of pork is either heavily restricted (imported for non-Muslim expats) or wholly banned (like in Saudi Arabia).
