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As published by the Ministry of Agriculture of Spain in its foreign news gazette, the German meat industry companies have faced a difficult market situation in 2017, according to the Meat Products Industry Federation of Germany (BVDF). The main difficulties were the product of a combination of factors, such as a reduced livestock supply, a low pork demand (both in Germany and the EU), as well as a downward trend in the meat and meat products exports to third countries.
Regarding the total meat consumption, a decrease by 0.8% with respect to 2016 was seen, reaching 59.7 kg per capita that, according to the specialists, was only due to the fall in the pork consumption.
So, whilst the average fowl consumption remained at 12.4 kg per capita, and that of beef even grew slightly by 0.2%, reaching 10.0 kg per capita, pork consumption in 2017 dropped to 35.8 kg, that compared with 2016 entailed a fall by 0.9%.
Opposed to the evolutions seen in previous years, the amounts exported by Germany in 2017 dropped, with respect to 2016, by 3.4%, reaching some 4.1 million tonnes, of which 14.3% were meat products (cured sausages, meat preparations), and so, the total sales abroad of this kind of products rose by 1.6%.
Nevertheless, due to the increase in the prices of the raw materials, an rise (regardless of the drop in the amounts exported) was registered in the revenue, that reached €10,200 million (+4.8%).
The strongest importers were, once again, the EU members that, depending on the kind of product, bought 80-90% of the exported goods. Nevertheless, regarding by-products, such as offal, bacon and fats, third countries stood out with 60% of the purchases.
Among these countries, China stood out as the main client, but in 2017 it reduced its purchases by 178,000 tonnes (-37%) with respect to 2016, so regarding the exports of by-products, there was a drop of sales by 661,000 tonnes (-9.3%).
A similar situation was seen in the case of the fresh and frozen pork exports, that amounted 1.81 million tonnes (-3.5%). This evolution was also mainly due to the drop of deals with China, with a drop of sales to China by 39%, amounting 167,800 tonnes. The sales in the EU market kept a relative stability, with 1.4 million tonnes.
Thursday, May 10th, 2018/ MAPAMA/ Spain.
http://www.mapama.gob.es
