New research from the UK government has revealed the country’s meat industry has experienced a decline in production.

The Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2023 report – seen by Just Food – shows meat production fell by 3.7% year-on-year, the first decline in a decade.

Drilling down into the figures reveals the largest decrease was in domestic pig production. The total number of pigs decreased by 10% to 4.7m animals.

The beef herd decreased by 3.8% to 1.4m animals and the total number of cattle and calves decreased by 0.8% to 9.6m animals.

Meanwhile, the total number of poultry decreased by 2.9% to 178m birds while the total number of sheep and lambs decreased by 4.1% to 32m animals.

The annual publication, which provides an overview of agriculture in the UK, revealed the country’s dairy herd also decreased, by 0.3% to 1.8m animals, and the cereal crops area fell by 2.7% to 3.1m hectares.

It also revealed the total labour force on commercial holdings dropped by 1.7% to 462,000 people.

Pointing to contextual factors for the reductions, the report said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had a significant impact on input prices including energy and fertilisers, which producers carried over into 2023, as did ongoing labour shortages in the industry.

Avian influenza and bovine tuberculosis were also factors mentioned in the report.

The fall in meat consumption is also likely to be a contributing factor. Government figures suggest per capita meat consumption fell by 14% between 2012 and 2022 as consumers reduced the amount of meat they eat and rising prices impacted their ability to buy the produce.

Just Food has asked the British Meat Processors Association for its comments on the report’s findings.