Albania has the highest level of sheep and goat meat consumption per capita in the region and ranks among the top globally, according to data derived from the methodology of food consumption by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
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Data referenced from an FAO study on livestock in the region indicate that an average Albanian consumed approximately 8.68 kilograms of sheep and goat meat in 2020.
Consumption in Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia was among the lowest, averaging 0.61 kg and 0.7 kg per capita per year, respectively, even lower than the global average of 1.99 kg per capita per year. Serbia and Montenegro have a modest consumption of 3.3 kg and 2.38 kg per capita per year, respectively.
Surveys with sheep and goat farmers indicate that the meat of young animals is mainly focused on families that raise them.
The FAO study shows that Albania's consumption expanded rapidly until 2019 when it started to decline. This decline in meat consumption is accompanied by a decrease in the number of young animals, which has experienced a sharp decline in recent years.
Serbia ranks second after Albania in the consumption of young animal meat, but with an increasing trend over the past decade. Bosnia and Herzegovina has had consistently low consumption of sheep and goat meat during 2010-2019, at around 0.5 kg per capita per year.
Looking at the overall structure of meat consumption in the Western Balkans, different trends are observed, and Albania does not lead. Montenegro ranks first with 76.8 kg of meat per capita per year, followed by Serbia with 61.5 kg, Albania with 40.71 kg, North Macedonia with 37.8 kg, and Bosnia and Herzegovina with 37.8 kg.
In Albania, goat meat is the most consumed, followed by poultry, and then sheep and goat meat. North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have a similar consumption structure where poultry accounts for 50% of the meat consumed.
For Serbia and Montenegro, pork accounts for around 60% of the total meat consumed per capita, followed by poultry, which constitutes 21%, and then goat meat.
The FAO study highlights a decline in the number of young animals in the Balkans. Albania, as the country with the largest number of young animals in the region, has seen the largest decline, especially in sheep, from 1.97 million heads in 2016 to 1.48 million in 2021. During the same period, the sheep population in Serbia remained constant at around 1.7 million.