Meat consumption hits ten-year high
People in Switzerland are eating more meat than they have in years – on average more than a kilo per person per week.
The total amount of meat eaten in 2010 was 427,138 tonnes, Proviande, the Swiss meat association, announced on Wednesday. That translates into 53.6 kilos per person per year.
That figure represents a 3.3 per cent increase over 2009 – and the highest figure recorded in the past decade.
Pork is by far the most popular, with 201,919 tonnes consumed in 2010. Beef (89,254 tonnes) and poultry (87,665) ranked second and third. In all three cases – the figures represented increases of about three or four per cent.
However, veal consumption went down by about 1.5 per cent to 25,116 tonnes.
Most of the meat eaten in Switzerland was Swiss: 80 per cent in total. Nearly all of the veal (98.4 per cent) and pork (94.5 per cent) was produced in Switzerland.
Higher local production costs are reflected in the amount of poultry imported; just half of the poultry eaten in Switzerland last year was Swiss.
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