The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (Thursday, October 12) released new figures which show that the average consumption of meat “was up by almost 1kg per capita to 93.9kg in 2022”.
The latest figures also show that the supply of meat in Ireland grew by 4% to 1.48 million tonnes last year although additional imports accounted for almost 33,000t of this increase according to the office.
Mairead Griffin, statistician at the CSO, said: “Overall, we can see the average consumption of total meat was up by almost 1kg per capita to 93.9kg in 2022.
“The increase was driven by the growth in the consumption of poultry meat, which was up by 3kg (7%) per person to 41.9kg, while consumption of all other meats fell in 2022.
“Poultry meat accounted for 45% of Ireland’s meat consumption, followed by pig meat at 32%, beef and veal at 20%, and sheep meat at just 3%.“
The average consumption of all other meats apart from poultry declined in 2022, with the largest fall – 5% – in the consumption of sheep meat, which dropped to 2.9kg per person.
Irish production
According to the latest CSO report in Ireland, the self sufficiency of poultry fell by 9% to 80%, which caused the self-sufficiency rate for total meat to reduce by 3% to 262%.
The self-sufficiency rate for all other meats increased, beef and veal increased by 33% to 694%, while there was a 35% increase for sheepmeat to 397%, and a small rise of 2% for pigmeat, which had a self-sufficiency rate of 238% in 2022.
The volume of slaughterings grew by 24,000t (2%) to 1.19 million tonnes, as beef and veal increased by 27,000t (5%) to 621,000 t, and sheepmeat rose by 5,000t (8%) to 68,000t.
There were decreases in slaughterings for pigmeat, which dropped by 3,000t to 333,000t, and poultry which decreased by 5,000t to 171,000t.
Exports
Net exports of total meat increased by 2% to 714,000t. Ireland was a net exporter of beef and veal, pig and sheep meat, but a net importer of poultry meat.
Poultry was the only meat type where the volume of imports exceeded exports. Imports of poultry meat exceeded exports by 43,000t.
Beef and veal net exports grew by 27,000t (5%) to 527,000t while the net export of sheepmeat was up by 5,000t (11%) to 53,000t.
There was no change in the net export of pigmeat, which remained at 177,000t.