March 14, 2016
Saudi Arabia in top spot of chicken consumers
Saudi Arabia is one of the world's biggest consumers of chicken, according a report by Saudi Gazette.
Locals are said to have ate 47kg of chicken meat and about 120 eggs yearly for each person on average.
On the other hand, only less than 9kg of fish was consumed a year, significant lower than the worldwide average of 25kg per person and the Gulf average of 28kg, an investor in aquaculture commented.
"Saudis largely eat poultry and red meat. They tend to avoid fish and marine and farm products," Ahmed Balla, chief executive of the National Group for Aquaculture, explained.
Every year, citizens in Arab Gulf countries consume 28kg of fishery product. The UAE and Oman are among the region's key consumers.
"The volume of investments in this area is up to SR42 billion (US$11.2 billion). Some 700,000 tonnes of poultry was domestically produced (in Saudi Arabia) in 2015, covering 45% of the domestic consumption," Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, technical adviser to Fakih Poultry, said.
- Saudi Gazette