By Choi Sung-jin



The average Korean ate 51.3 kilograms of meat in 2014, more than the per capita meat consumption of 47.1 kg by the average Chinese and that of 35.5 kg by the Japanese, statistics show.



According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Korea's per capita meat consumption breaks down to 24.3 kg of pork, 15.4 kg of chicken and 11.6 kg of beef with its total larger than China and Japan by 4 to 16 kg.



An average Chinese consumed 32 kg of pork, 11.4 kg of chicken and 3.7 kg of beef while an average Japanese ate 14.9 kg of pork, 13.6 kg of chicken and 7 kg of beef, the OECD report said.



The United States topped the list of per capita meat consumption with 89.7 kg, followed by Argentina's 85.4 kg and Israel's 84.2 kg. OECD member countries' average per capita meat consumption was 63.5 kg (27.6 kg of chicken, 21.9 kg of pork and 14 kg of beef).



OECD countries consumed more meat than non-member nations, and also consumed more chicken and beef than pork. In most countries with per capita income of $30,000 or more, aside from EU countries, consumption of chicken was larger than other meat products, which experts attribute to their preference of white meat out of concerns about health, as also shown in the OECD countries' average per capita meat consumption.



"Korea, too, is likely to consume more chicken than red meat, as the nation's income increases," said an official at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.



China accounted for 31.2 percent of global meat consumption, and the top five countries (China, EU-28, the U.S., Brazil and Russia) made up 71.6 percent of the total worldwide, indicating the undue concentration of meat eaters in a relatively small number of countries.



