EU beef consumption growing despite Italy slump

Italians ate 3% less beef in 2016, according to early estimates from the EU’s No 1 market member state for beef imports.

Household purchases of beef in the first nine months of 2016 were down 5% by volume, according to Nielsen consumer panel data, and 7% by expenditure, repeating a similar decline recorded in 2015.

And a 3% fall was revealed at last week’s Bord Bia’s Meat Marketing Seminar, compared to beef consumption increases of 1.1% to 1.8% in the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Spain; 0.1% in France; and 3.1% in Ireland.