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By Dr. Salah H. Esmail , Cairo, Egypt
The Middle East is the geographic region where Europe, Africa, and Asia meet. It is the term that now generally refers to the Arab World which consists of independent countries spread over the south eastern part of Asia, all North Africa and most of the eastern part of Africa. These countries are rich in natural resources including petrol, minerals, fish, and fertile land, with a surface area amounting to about 1352 million hectares, which is about 10% of the world’s surface.The people from these regions are great consumers of red meat, particularly mutton and lamb, and do not eat pork, except in the small Christian communities living all over the Arab world. Poultry meat and eggs are the second largest group of foods consumed, indicating the significance of poultry meat and eggs.
Vast difference in consumption
Given in Table 1 are the per capita production values of poultry meat and eggs in the Arab world (2010), with the population of each country to determine the total production. There is, of course, a vast difference in per capita consumption between Arab countries, as evidenced by the values reported for example in Sudan (0.8 kg of meat and 24 eggs) relative to those reported for Kuwait (35.2 kg of meat and 212 eggs).
Given in Table 1 are the per capita production values of poultry meat and eggs in the Arab world (2010), with the population of each country to determine the total production. There is, of course, a vast difference in per capita consumption between Arab countries, as evidenced by the values reported for example in Sudan (0.8 kg of meat and 24 eggs) relative to those reported for Kuwait (35.2 kg of meat and 212 eggs).
In Table 2, the per capita production values for the developed countries are provided along with the average world values for comparison. It is obvious here that the per capita production of poultry meat and eggs in the Arab world is relatively low compared with the world average, and is even lower when compared with the reported values for some developed countries.
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Source: World Poultry, Vol. 27, No. 4, 2011
