The European Union has released the report ‘EU agricultural markets short-term outlook – summer 2021′ which presents an overview of the prospects for each agri-food sector, including meat. An extract of the report with the pages dedicated to the meat sector can be downloaded from this link to our area on meat sector legislation and documents of interest.

Relevant data

Overall, EU beef production is expected to decrease by 1.3% (92,000 tons) in 2021, due to lower demand from food services. However, exports to high-value markets such as Canada and Japan should continue to increase thanks to recent trade agreements.

As for pigmeat, EU production should continue to grow in 2021, a rise of 1.7% (394,000 tons) compared to 2020. Even though exports to the UK dropped, overall EU pigmeat exports should grow by 5% in 2021. High prices should compensate the increase in feed prices.

Regarding poultry, with Avian Influenza hitting major EU producers and high feed prices, EU production is expected to decrease by 0.9% (121,000 tons) this year. EU consumption is expected to increase with food services reopening. However, frozen stocks should partly satisfy that extra demand, leading to a stable apparent consumption.

EU sheep and goat meat production should remain stable in 2021, with a 0.1% increase (688 tons), despite the relatively high prices. In terms of demand, the reopening of food services should have a positive impact for the second half of the year.

Source: Carnica News