Meat exports from Germany fell by 19% over the past 5 years

Dynamics of exports of MEAT and meat products in Germany. Source: Destatis.

Germany exported almost 2.9 million tonnes of meat and meat products in 2022, mostly to other European Union (EU) countries, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). This represents a 6.9% drop from the previous year. Over the past five years, meat exports have fallen by 19.3%. In 2017, Germany exported almost 3.6 million tons of meat.

By category, 1.5 million tons of pork were exported in 2022 (50.5% of total exports), which is 20.4% less than in the last five years. Beef exports fell 11.4% to 254,000 tons, but poultry meat exports remained relatively flat (-0.2%) at about 481,500 tons.

Restrictions on imports in consuming countries such as CHINA are likely one of the reasons for the decline in meat exports. If in 2017 China accounted for 9.7% of all meat exports, then in 2022 this figure was only 0.1%.

A similar trend is observed in meat imports: in 2022, Germany imported 2 million tons of meat, mainly from other EU countries, which is 4.5% less than in the previous year. Over the past five years, meat imports have decreased by 15.9%. In 2017, Germany imported 2.4 million tons of meat.

By category, there is also a clear drop in the amount of imported pork: from 2017 to 2022, it decreased by almost a quarter (-23.4%). In 2022, about 701.4 thousand tons of pork were imported. Beef imports fell 12% to just under 324,200 tons, while poultry meat imports fell less sharply (-5.2%) to 657,600 tons.

Like many other food prices, meat prices also rose above average last year. In 2022, German consumers paid 14.5% more for meat and meat products than a year earlier. The most expensive was poultry meat (+22.9%), followed by beef (+19.2%) and pork (+16.7%).