Koreans eat 26 chickens per person per year

Each South Korean consumed 26 chickens per person last year, a significant increase from the past. Per capita chicken consumption has nearly doubled in 20 years.

According to the Agricultural Outlook Report released by the Korea Rural Economic Research Institute on Sunday, the average South Korean consumed 26 chickens last year. Last year, the number of chickens slaughtered in Korea was 1.0137 billion, which, when divided by the country's population (about 50 million), translates to 20.2 chickens per person.

Domestic consumption was 789,000 metric tons last year, exceeding production (607,000 tons) by 30 percent. Assuming that imported chicken accounts for 30 percent of domestic consumption, the combined domestic and imported volume averaged about 26 birds per person.

By weight, the per capita chicken consumption last year was 15.7 kilograms of meat (meat without bones). In 2003, South Koreans consumed 7.8 kilograms of chicken per capita. Per-capita consumption has thus doubled in 20 years.

Chicken consumption increases significantly in the summer, especially in July, when the number of chickens slaughtered for samgyetang (chicken soup with ginseng) is the highest of the year at 103.69 million. This was 30.59 million more than that in February, the month with the lowest number of slaughtered chickens.


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