Ahmad Shad, Secretary of the Association of Raw Animal Product Importers, states that the annual consumption of red meat in Iran has dropped to less than 600,000 tons per year.
On Sunday, September 15, in an interview with ILNA news agency, Shad called the current statistics on meat consumption in Iran inaccurate and said: “According to unofficial statistics, the country’s meat consumption is between 850,000 and 1 million tons annually, but our estimates suggest a lower figure.”
According to Shad, there are no reliable statistics on meat consumption in the country, but estimates based on imports and slaughtered livestock indicate that the annual consumption of red meat, including both light and heavy livestock, has fallen below 600,000 tons.
He added, “The people of Iran consumed more meat in past years, but since 2021, consumption has been declining.”
Meanwhile, according to estimates from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Iranians consumed 335,000 tons of lamb and 382,000 tons of beef last year.
Thus, based on these estimates, Iran’s red meat consumption last year was less than 720,000 tons.
Domestic statistics on meat consumption per capita in Iran vary. In May 2023, Masoud Rasouli, Secretary of the Meat and Protein Packaging Industry Association, reported a decrease in per capita meat consumption to four kilograms per year.
Some reports and calculations published in domestic media have even placed this figure at around three kilograms.
According to estimates from the Iranian Statistics Center, per capita meat consumption in Iran was around 13 kilograms per year in 2011, which decreased to eight kilograms by 2019.
These combined data show that red meat consumption in Iran has significantly decreased over the past decade, with per capita consumption last year down about 35% compared to 2011.
The significant drop in red meat consumption in Iran has coincided with rising inflation, and meat prices have been leading food inflation in recent official reports.
Data released by the Statistics Center of Iran shows that in August 2024, the inflation rate for food and beverages reached 34.8%, with the highest inflation among food items related to the “red meat and poultry” group.
The annual inflation for this group was reported to be 58.3% by the Statistics Center.
Nutrition experts have warned in recent years about the health consequences of reduced protein consumption among Iranians.
A former official from the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare also warned last year, citing new statistics on “malnutrition” among the Iranian population, that a “humanitarian catastrophe” is unfolding in the country.
Last year, the Research Center of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (Parliament) reported that in 2022, the calorie intake of half of the Iranian population was below the standard.
