Towards a broader understanding of South African consumer spending on meat

This paper analyses meat consumption trends in South Africa. Despite the fact that aggregate per capita meat consumption remained relatively constant during the last 34 years, significant changes were observed in the per capita consumption among different meat categories. By applying Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and the Johansen cointegration approach to a conventional demand function, significant changes in the contributions of economic and non-economic factors towards meat demand were identified over time. From the analysis it is apparent that non-economic factors play a greater role in determining meat consumption in South Africa.