China turning to vegetarian food, decline in meat consumption reported

With increasing health consciousness among people, the Chinese food eating habits are witnessing a paradigm shift. A recent PTI report suggests that more and more people in China are switching to vegetarian food. In China, a country which is the world’s largest market for beef, pork, and poultry, eateries are going all vegan to encash this popular sentiment. The report hints that people relate non-vegetarian food with high blood pressure and obesity. This has made the vegan eateries more competitive than ever.

Han Lili, a Shanghai-based artist told PTI that the number of vegan restaurants has multiplied from 49 in 2012 to more than 100 last year in China’s largest city, Shanghai. Another report by research firm Euromonitor pointed out that the demand for pork, beef, and poultry in China has seen a decline in the recent years. Another such report by Chinadialogue.net also highlights the decline in the sales of pork from 42.49 million tonnes in 2014 to 40.85 million tonnes in 2016.

Furthermore, the imports of vegetable and fruits have also registered a spike since the growing trend of vegetarianism. As per UN trade figures, imports of avocados rose alone saw a whopping 13,000-fold increase between 2010 and 2016. The report suggests that the shift is also an impact of many dietary guidelines in China advising to eat healthy, environment-friendly vegetarian food. Notably, around 150 million tonnes of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere every year by the Chinese meat industry.

In 2014, a Xinhua news agency report claimed that more than 50 million people shun meat in their meal in China. It is worth mentioning here that as per many world vegetarian outfits, India habitats the largest world vegan population with over 500 million vegetarian people.