Home consumption of meat in Belgium rises again

Corona still has an enormous impact on home purchases in Belgium: for the second time in a row, spending on fresh food was higher than before the corona crisis, according to figures from Vlam. This can be seen in meat and poultry, where the declining trend has turned into an increase. Home consumption of fish, molluscs and crustaceans and meat substitutes rose even more strongly. Meat and poultry have a volume share of 84%, compared to 15% for fish, molluscs and crustaceans and 1% for meat substitutes.

Fresh red meat

Within the category of fresh meat (+3.6%), we see for the second time in a row an increase in the home consumption of beef to 4.6 kg per capita. For veal, home consumption remained stable at 0.6 kg per capita for the third year in a row. For pork, we saw an increase in the period July 2020-June 2021 (+7% to 5.7 kg per capita). For meat mixtures, there was an increase of 9% in the period July 2019-June 2020, which remained at the same level in July 2020-June 2021, at 6.4 kg per capita.

Poultry, rabbit and game

Purchases for home consumption of fresh poultry and game rose from 9 to 9.7 kg per capita. Chicken in particular grew strongly (+7.1%). Poultry consumption is highest in Flanders and among young singles and families with children. The home consumption of chicken amounted to 9.05 kg per capita. Within chicken, the importance of 'chicken in pieces' (including chicken breast and processed chicken) rose at the expense of rotisserie chicken and frozen chicken. The share of organic rose to 1.5% by volume.

Home consumption of rabbit grew by 10% in 2020 and now remains at this higher level with 0.213 kg per capita, 16% purchasing households and a purchasing frequency of 2.1 times per year.

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