WattAgNet: Colombia’s chicken, egg consumption increases

Poultry sector’s growth of 5.2 percent fuels jump in consumption

Poultry farmers in Colombia continue to achieve significant progress in the country’s output of chicken meat and eggs, supported by strong domestic consumption of these products.

The latest figures from the national poultry federation (Federación Nacional de Avicultores de Colombia; Fenavi point to the sector’s growth of 5.2 percent for the January to March quarter compared with the same period in 2016.

Production of chicken meat for the quarter was 384,097 metric tons (mt), and 3.27 billion eggs were produced.

According to Andres Valencia, Fenavi’s executive president, the poultry population is now 3 percent higher than one year ago, indicating that output will likely continue to rise for the rest of the year. He estimates chicken and egg production at 1.5 million metric tons (mmt) and 13.5 billion, respectively, for 2017.

In 2016, the country produced almost 1.479 mmt of chicken and more than 12.8 billion eggs, according to Fenavi.

Growth of the Colombian poultry sector over recent years has contributed to increasing domestic consumption, says the federation. For chicken meat, annual per-capita uptake has risen from 12.5kg in 1998 to a forecast 32.2kg this year, while egg consumption is up from 168 to 272 over the same period.

According to the most recent data from the statistics division of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, FAOstat, Colombian chicken production was 1.28mmt in 2013, and egg production at 11.5 billion in 2014.