Chicken trumps beef in Switzerland

Switzerland consumed 53.7 kilograms of meat per capita last year, and poultry rose to second place on the meat leader board. The Swiss consumed 11.4 kilograms last year, an increase of 4%.

Swiss meat consumption has been steady over the course of the years, but the underlying proportions of domestic to game, pork to poultry to beef, appear on the move, although the rapidity of this change is slow.

For the first time since they started measuring, trade association Proviande announced that poultry consumption had overtaken beef consumption last year, although by a small margin. Poultry’s precarious position may be due to the certain faddishness; poultry meat is markedly more popular in the cities of western Switzerland than in the rest of the country.

Pork remains the perennial favourite of the Swiss (the Spitzreiter), though consumption declined by 1.7%, this still means 25 kilograms per capita.