Meat consumption fell 12% this year and reached the lowest level in two decades

In January-November of this year, the beef consumption per inhabitant was the equivalent of 47.4 kilos/year, which was 11.1% below the average for January-November 2023 (-5.9 kg/inhabitant/year). Meanwhile, the twelve month moving average Until November 2024 it would have remained at 47.0 kg/inhabitant/yearregistering a decrease of 12.4% year-on-year (-6.6 kg/inhabitant/year), revealed the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Meat and Derivatives of the Argentine Republic (CICCRA).

So, apparent domestic consumption of beef would have been equivalent to 2,038 million tons r/c/h, resulting in domestic absorption 10.1% lower than that of the same period of 2023. This is the lowest record in the last twenty-two years.

In October 2024, the total exported beef was equivalent to 56.2 thousand tons of product weight (tn pp; without considering sales of bones with meat). In the monthly comparison, a drop of 6.6% was observed, fully explained by the ‘normalization’ of shipments to Israel, which in September had reached a record of 7.4 thousand tons pp.

But in the year-on-year comparison, a positive and very important variation in total exports continued to be recorded (+39.8%), explained in this case by higher sales to China and to a lesser extent to Israel, the USA, Mexico and Germany. . In the first ten months of the year, exports set a new high of 528.1 thousand tons pp., exceeding the January-October 2023 record by 14.5%.

Beef production: what 2024 left us

According to this same report, in the first eleven months of the year, A total of 369 establishments slaughtered 12.67 million head of cattle, that is, 5.7% less than in January-November 2023. (-761.5 thousand heads).

In ‘historical’ terms, the level of activity in 2024 remained in position No. 11 among the last forty-five yearsthat is, six positions below the work of the first eleven months of 2023.

As noted in previous reports, “The fall in sector activity was a product of the dry which reached its maximum during 2023, forcing the early sale of farms and the reduction of the stock of bellies during that year, and negatively affecting the pregnancy and birth of calves, an impact that was verified especially during the first part of 2024.

Establishments authorized by Senasa slaughtered 9.98 million head in the first eleven months of the year and accounted for 78.8% of the total slaughter. On average, each establishment slaughtered 72.85 thousand head, which was equivalent to 6.62 thousand head per month. Meanwhile, the remaining 232 establishments slaughtered 2.69 million heads (21.2% of the total), that is, 11.6 thousand heads per establishment (1,054 thousand heads per establishment and per month).

Male slaughter registered a 5% annual dropleaving the total at 6.61 million heads (-349.91 thousand heads). Of the total, 83.1% were steers (5,498 million heads) and 13.9% were steers (917.2 thousand heads). lThe slaughter of steers fell 4.4% annually and that of steers decreased 9.0% annually.

In the case of female slaughter, the contraction was 6.4% year-on-year (-411.6 thousand heads). The total slaughtered was 6,059 million heads. Of this total, 59.4% were made up of heifers (-3.0% annually) and 40.6% were made up of cows (-10.9% annually). With these figures, the importance of females remained at 47.8% of the total, that is, 0.3 interannual percentage points below the January-November 2023 average.

In November 2024, 260 thousand tons of bone-in beef were produced of beef. Compared to October, production decreased 3.2%, correcting the data for the number of working days. It should be noted that the hook weight was equivalent to 228 kilos, which showed a drop of 0.2% monthly and a drop of 0.7% year-on-year.

In the first eleven months of 2024, beef production was equivalent to 2,894 million. Compared to the same period in 2023, a drop of 4.9% was observed. While slaughter decreased 5.7% in interannual terms, the average hook weight showed an increase of 0.9%.