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According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the production of plant-based alternatives once again increased, reaching 126,500 tons—a 4.0 % increase over the previous year (2023: 121,600 tons). The market value of these products rose even more significantly: at Euro 647.1 million, the production value was 10.9 % above the previous year's figure of Euro 583.2 million. Compared to 2019 (60,400 tons), production volume has more than doubled within five years (+109.5 %).
Despite growth: meat production continues to dominate
With a production value of around 44.3 billion euros, the conventional meat industry continued to dominate in 2024, despite a slight decline of 1.1 % compared to the previous year (44.8 billion euros). This means that the value of meat production was around 70 times higher than that of meat substitutes. By way of comparison, in 2019 the production value of meat was around 40.1 billion Euros – which was around 150 times the market value of plant-based alternatives, which stood at around 0.3 billion euros.
Per capita meat consumption rises slightly
According to preliminary data from the Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung (Federal Office for Agriculture and Food) (BLE), average meat consumption in Germany rose slightly again in 2024. At 53.2 kilograms per capita, consumption was slightly above the levels of the previous years 2023 (52.9 kg) and 2022 (52.8 kg). This was mainly due to higher consumption of poultry meat, while consumption of pork and beef remained at a similar level.
