Turkey’s red meat production down four per cent in 2017

Monitoring Desk

ANKARA: Turkey’s annual red meat production dropped 3.97 percent to 1.12 million tons in 2017, compared with the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Monday.

The red meat production consisted of cattle (987,482 tons), sheep (100,058 tons), goat (37,525 tons) and buffalo meat (1,339 tons), TurkStat said.

Meanwhile, in December 2017, the country’s red meat production rose by 9.1 percent to reach 295,329 tons, compared with the same month of 2016.

Last week, TurkStat said the total number of animals — mostly bovine and ovine animals — in Turkey amounted to 60.7 million heads last year, an 8.6 percent rise, year-on-year.

The country also produced 20.7 million tons of milk, up 12 percent, year-on-year, and 114,471 tons of honey with an annual hike of 8.3 percent, according to TurkStat.