Future Directions for the Global Meat Industry?

The world meat industry has faced many challenges in recent years yet consumption continues to increase, particularly in emerging and developing countries. There has been substantial consumption growth in China over the past 30 years but only in the last 5 years has this had a major impact on the world meat economy. By 2013, China was easily the world's largest meat importer with increases in consumption outstripping production growth. Other issues currently facing the industry include higher production costs, competition from other proteins, consumer concerns about food safety and animal welfare, and environmental factors. The big challenge for the industry is to meet projected growth in meat consumption with sustainable production growth. Defining and measuring sustainability in meat production is not straightforward and there is a danger that too narrow a definition of sustainability will be used to monitor progress. The industry is capable of reaching sustainable meat consumption targets although the biggest challenges will be in developing and emerging economies. The industry is adopting new technology and using opportunities to add value for example in the marketing and processing of offal and animal by-products.