CARACAS – Despite a marked decline in beef consumption, Venezuela registered an important jump in livestock exports by sending 12,000 units to “friendly countries” while the country readies a fourth sea shipment soon, Wilmar Castro Soteldo, the Agriculture and Land minister for the leftist government of Nicolás Maduro, said on the agriculture-oriented Cultivando Patria (tilling the country) weekly show broadcast on national television on Sunday.

While the Maduro administration exports this kind of amount to its longtime partners, most of the population hardly consumes no more than 7 pounds of meat per year.

Carlos Albornoz, head of the Venezuelan Institute of Dairy and Meat Products (Invelecar) said in an interview that about 10 million people are fortunate to eat the meat that the country produces, while two-thirds (around 20 million people) hardly consume 18 ounces. He added that per capita consumption is estimated at below 9 pounds.

The 2019-2020 National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI), conducted by the Andrés Bello Catholic University to assess the socio-economic conditions in Venezuela, revealed that lower household income levels to acquire the basic food basket are making Venezuelan families turn to a diet based on carbohydrates, and the national average protein consumption 34% of the requirements.

According to Invelecar estimates, the meat sector will produce some 90,000 metric tons (90 million kilograms) in 2020, which translates into a 46% or 79,000-ton drop from 2019 when 169,000 tons (169 million kilograms) were produced.

If meat production drops this year from 90 million kilograms, and this figure is divided by the country’s current estimated population (28.4 million) after the migration wave that took place over the last five years, there would only be 7 pounds left to consume per person, the lowest in Latin America and less than half in African countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Nigeria, where consumption is located at 15, 18 and 20 pounds, respectively, according to The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) data, which also showed that the annual per capita consumption of meat in Argentina is over 100,000 kilograms despite having the second-highest inflation rate in the region behind Venezuela.

“Today Venezuela consumes half of what Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Nigeria do. Only half! This makes one of the lowest consumptions on the planet. An unprecedented tragedy, indeed. And this includes pork, poultry, eggs, cheese, and all types of animal protein,” Albornoz was quoted as saying.