Thinking outside the box – this is how much meat Switzerland eats in a global comparison

In 2022, Mr. and Mrs. Zwitser ate an average of 50.8 kilos of meat. That corresponds almost exactly to one St.Gallen bratwurst per day: According to “Proviande”, the trade association of the Swiss meat industry, per capita consumption has fallen slightly compared to the previous year – by about 2 percent. However, this is within the normal statistical range.

A look at the statistics shows that the meat market remains surprisingly stable despite pressure from the climate movement to reduce meat consumption. Since 2008, per capita consumption has fallen only slightly from high levels, while total consumption has actually increased with a growing population. With 452,241 tonnes, Switzerland consumed slightly less meat last year than in 2021, but still significantly more than in previous years.

The share of plant-based alternatives sold at retail has increased only marginally in recent years relative to the overall market. In 2022, the share of plant-based meat substitutes was 3.0 percent, in 2018 it was 1.7 percent.

But back to meat consumption: the Swiss eat the most pork (21 kg), followed by poultry (15 kg) and beef (11 kg). Veal and lamb, on the other hand, are not very popular and consumption has fallen slightly from a low level. Game is eaten even less, every year about half a kilo per head of the population ends up on the plate of Mr and Mrs Schweizer.

If you look at Swiss meat consumption since the first survey in 1949, it is striking that pork is significantly less popular than in the mid-1980s, when the amount of meat consumed had peaked. Only in the case of poultry meat has total consumption increased since then. And because domestic production alone cannot meet demand, people here depend on imports: more than a third of the poultry meat consumed in Switzerland comes from abroad.

In a global comparison, Switzerland ranks in the upper midfield when it comes to meat consumption, according to the UN. At the top of the table are completely different values: Hong Kong leads the carnivores ranking, where an average person eats 130 kg of meat per year (ranking below).

Behind Hong Kong, the US and Australia occupy the remaining podium places. Argentina, the beef country, has to settle for fourth place, the largest “meat tigers” in Europe live in Spain, which is fifth with 104 kilos of meat consumed per capita.

With 69.48 kg of meat, Switzerland ranks 51st out of a total of 175 countries. Compared to our immediate neighbours, we eat slightly more beef at the expense of pork.

According to a UN report, people in Burundi eat the least amount of meat. At 2.36 kg per person per year, they consume almost 30 times less meat than we do.

Unlike in Switzerland, meat consumption per capita is still rising sharply worldwide. In 1961, the annual meat consumption per capita was about 24 kilograms, in 2019 this had grown to almost 43 kilograms. Basically, the higher the average income in a country, the higher the meat consumption per capita. Although many industrialized countries have been eating less meat for several years than before, the decline is much slower than developing and emerging countries are catching up in meat consumption.