Argentina chicken meat consumption revised up - GAIN
Consumption will continue to climb in 2025
11 November 2024
2 minute read
By: The USDA post in Argentina forecasts 2025 domestic chicken consumption up slightly to 2.37 MMT, increasing per capita consumption to 49.4 kg (108 pounds) on chicken’s price-competitiveness, according to a recent US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report.
Domestic consumption has historically consumed approximately 90% of chicken production. Thus, domestic conditions influence production and purchasing decisions.
Current high inflation rates and stagnant real wages are expected to temper the modest consumption growth in chicken meat since 2012 due to the weakening of consumer purchasing power.
As per capita poultry consumption growth has slowed, population growth is driven mainly by population growth. In recent years, chicken prices have risen more slowly than beef, encouraging a switch from beef to chicken in price-sensitive markets.
At this time per capita chicken consumption is approaching parity with beef, a situation that would have been impossible to predict in beef-loving Argentina as recently as 10 years ago.
Poultry meat consumption has eroded beef’s dominance in Argentina in the last decade. In addition to economic reasons, chicken has a public perception, especially among younger people and women, as being healthier than beef.
Whole broilers represent 70% of domestic chicken meat consumption. Industry contacts report that further processed value-added products, such as pre-cooked meals, frozen chicken meals, chicken nuggets, and chicken burgers, represent market sector growth opportunities and are actively seeking to incorporate fast-growing products from other markets, like the United States, into their product lines to stimulate more growth.
CY 2024 chicken meat consumption is revised up from 2023 to 2.32 MMT, leading to a per capita consumption of 49 kilograms.
