Meat prices rose at an above-average rate last year: While groceries rose by 13.4 percent compared to 2021, the increase in meat was 14.5 percent, as the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced on Friday.
Poultry meat was particularly expensive – the increase here was 22.9 percent. Beef and veal cost 19.2 percent more last year, pork 16.7 percent more. Overall consumer prices rose by 6.9 percent in 2022.
Germans have also been eating less and less meat in recent years: According to the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food, per capita consumption was 55.0 kilograms in 2021.
The current value of meat consumption corresponds to a decrease of 12.4 percent compared to 2011. At that time, 62.8 kilograms of meat per capita were consumed in this country.
At the same time, less and less meat is being produced in Germany. According to preliminary results, commercial slaughterhouses in Germany produced around 7.0 million tons of meat in 2022, the Federal Statistical Office further announced.
This corresponds to a decline of 8.1 percent compared to the previous year; in the past five years, meat production has even decreased by 13.9 percent. Pork is particularly affected.
The declining production is likely to have something to do with the above-average increase in prices as well as with meatless nutrition trends.
German meat exports are falling significantly
According to the statistical office, meat exports and imports are also declining. In 2022, almost 2.9 million tons of meat and meat products were exported from Germany. This corresponds to a decrease of 6.9 percent compared to the previous year (since 2017: decrease of 19.3 percent).
As the reason for the declining exports, the Federal Office cited stricter import regulations in China, for example, which in 2017 still accounted for almost a tenth of meat exports. In 2022, the Chinese share was only 0.1 percent.
According to this, a good 2.0 million tons of meat were imported into Germany in 2022, i.e. 4.5 percent less than in the previous year.
The Federal Statistical Office also confirmed earlier information on the fall in domestic production, which at 7.0 million tons was a good 8 percent below the value from 2021.
Since 2017, the amount of exported pork, which still accounts for a good half of meat exports, has fallen by more than a fifth (20.4 percent).
German beef was also less in demand abroad, down 11.4 percent. The volume of exported poultry meat, however, remained relatively constant. (AFP, KNA, dpa)
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