Indian Meat Consumption

Trends in meat consumption
Broiler meat is the fastest growing segment, whereas bovine meat is the slowest segment.

Meat consumption has grown at about 4.8% pa. Poultry (broiler) meat has grown at nearly 20% per annum from a level of 478,000 tpa to 1.4 million tpa. Mutton segment has grown at almost the same rate as the overall meat consumption, whereas pork has grown at a slower pace. The bovine meat segment is virtually stagnant.

Per capita availability has grown from 11.9 grams/ day to 14.65 grams/day during the same period (CAGR = 3.52%)

How does India’s consumption compare with the rest of the world?

There is no straight comparison to derive the potential. However a look at the values, does give an indication of the gap. India’s consumption levels are very low and malnutrition and hunger are prevalent. It can be argued that as long as income levels keep increasing, the demand is likely to keep on growing in the foreseeable future.

The diagram depicted below maps the per capita consumption of meat of India and the rest of the world, for the year 1998. It is in the form of the classical S-curve, with India yet to be at the high growth inflexion point. The diagram would indicate that the inflexion point (at which demand starts accelerating) would be somewhere around 20-25 kg pa.

The position of Japan at low consumption levels could be explained by the fact that Japan is a high fish consuming community, which inhibits its meat consumption.

India’s consumption levels (currently 5.35 pg/ annum) are so low that it can only be explained by low incomes and high relative prices.

The horizontal axis indicates per capita consumption of meat (kg/ annum)

Data source: FAO

The total world consumption of meat is estimated to be of the order of 240 million tpa and India’s share of consumption is only 2.2%. On the other hand, India supports nearly 17% of the world’s population