Food Consumption Structure in European Union

Abstract

The study overviews the general structure of the average food consumption main kinds of different food in EU-27 for the period of 2005 and 2010, and emphasizes the average food consumption in the first five EU member states in cases of each kind of food. The study has objective to set up rang for the 27 EU member states based on the SPSS statistical system. The study would like to analyse that how these economies can develop their performance of food consumption and structure as main issues for the food consumption trend and development. The share of the Wheat consumption is the biggest share of the food consumption structure in the EU-27. In this field the Wheat consumption was the highest in Malta, Italy and Romania by more than 1000 kcal/person/day.

This average food consumption concentration in the first five EU member states is connecting with traditional production and consumption structure, which has created for the historical periods or for the last century ore decades. Naturally the food consumption is depending on the purchase power parity (PPP) in each EU member states, because in those EU member states where the population has higher or highly level of standard of life with highly level of PPP, they mostly consume more manufactured foods, animal fats (Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Germany, France) and pig meat (Luxembourg, Finland, Austria,).

Keywords: Traditional production, Purchase power parity, Denmark, Pig meat, SPSS
JEL code: E2, Q2

I. Introduction

The study overviews the general structure of the average food consumption main kinds of different food in EU-27 for the period of 2005 and 2010, and emphasizes the average food consumption in the first five EU member states in cases of each kind of food. The object of the study is important, because the food consumption is a sensitivity issues in EU-27, because this is an economic and deeply social–political issue in the same time. Also the food consumption structure is important for the food producers in order to follow the market demands in EU and the export possibility for the world market. Therefore the market strategy of the basic food producers and the manufacturing producers emphasizes the food production structure relevant to market demands and food consumption structure in the world market and the EU single market. The data base is coming from the most important FAO and EU statistical data.

Because the food consumption and food production are belonging to the economic conditions of the EU, therefore some economic and financial issues can be useful to be analysed. Lentner declared that Hungary is open economy, therefore the role of the foreign capital is considerable in income distribution of the income-owners. Also in Hungary the foreign economic balance of the Hungarian economy has important influence on the economic growth. The balance of payment means as the index similarly to summarised balance of the financial works of the national economy connecting with the international economy. The balance contents the all income coming from the international connections and expenditure implemented by all participants of the national economy – as firms, entrepreneurships, natural private persons and the government (state) – in the given year. The balance of payment consists of two parts: current balance of payment and balance of capital and finance. Recently also there is another third part of the balance of payment, namely the reserve of the national central bank because of the economic and financial crisis, which has a final balancing influence on stability of the balance of payment (Lentner – Farkas, 20041; and Lentner, 2013). In any case the financial institutes should follow the financial conditions and risk management of the firms or small-medium enterprises, for example analyse all business cycles, evaluate the risks and determine risk sensitivity of company. But from other side of the risk, in contradiction, for example the FDI inflow into Africa preferred the investments in services, as less risk-sectors and this sector did not need much significant costly investments, but promised more profitable performance (see detailed in Zéman at al, 2006).

Additionally to financial risk management, the environmental conservation strategy is important in the future economic development of this country-group, for example in China. In spite that the difficulties are followed by governmental forces in China, there were also some main positive results for environment friendly technological development based on the green policy, China became the fourth largest wind power supplier in the world economy and favourable economic and financial background were created for the corporations to follow green policy in this country (Gál et al, 2016).

II. Material and Methods

The study has objective to set up rang for the 27-EU member states based on the SPSS statistical system (SPSS = Special Program for the Social Sciences). The study would like to analyse that how these economies can develop their performance of food consumption and structure as main issues for the food consumption trend and development and how the essence of these developments is by overviewing consumption of animal and plant food for the second half of the first decade of the 21st century. The variance analyses, correlation and regressive calculation, factor analyses and cluster analyses are based on the SPSS research and data analysing (Sajtos – Mitev, 20062).

The study connects with some important international and national scientific resources and literature. Some experts focus on the main subjects of this case study concerning financial resources and issues, governmental budget, GDP growth rate and labour productivity. The general overview concerning the labour productivity, which needs for developing knowledge of the employees continuously. (Lentner, 20073).

Table-1: Average Consumption of 2 major vegetal foods and 7 major animal foods in the second half of 2000s, 2005-2010, Dietary Energy Consumption (kcal/person/day)

Source: FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2010): FAO Statistical Yearbook 2010. FAO, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, 2010. http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/am081m/PDF/am081m00d.pdf4

255-1 (Luxembourg-4), 132-2 (Italy), 125-3 (Ireland) ect … = Order of the EU member states in each main food consumption.
In the Table-1 there are 9 variances within 4 components in 5 country-groups in 27-EU member states
Component-1: BovineMeat, (Minus) Egg, (Minus) AnimalFat
Component-2: (Minus) Poultry, (Minus) Milk, Cheese
Component-3: (Minus) Wheat, PigMeat
Component-4: Rice

III. Results and Discussion

The data analyses concern nine variances used in this SPSS statistical system, namely BovineMeat, Eggs, AnimalFat, Milk, Cheese, Wheat, PigMeat and Rice in period of 2005-2010. The statistical system classified nine variances into 4 components and created five clusters for the EU-27 member states based on the correlations and significance among variances. Based on data bases of the FAO concerning the Table-1, Table-2, Figure-1, Figure-2 and Figure-3, originally the share of the Wheat consumption is the biggest share of the food consumption structure in the EU-27. In this field the Wheat consumption was the highest in Malta, Italy and Romania by more than 1000 kcal/person/day, which show that the consumers have eaten different kinds of breads and foods coming from wheat. After these countries the wheat consumption was at highly level in Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Slovakia. This means that the wheat consumption was stronger mostly in less developed EU member states, namely in Central East and Mediterranean regions of the EU, where the consumers have less power purchase parity. Naturally in other EU member states the wheat consumption has dominant role in food consumption of the population but its importance is less than in other two regions mentioned above.

The second highest level of the food consumption is the PigMeat in EU-27, which has also important role in all of the consumption structure of population in EU-27, in which filed this consumption was at highest level in Finland, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Spain, Germany and United Kingdom (UK), Denmark, France and Hungary. This Pig-meat consumption is very common in EU wide-side, and it was only under the level of 100 kcal/person/day in Bulgaria by 72 kcal. The Pig-meat consumption is very traditional in EU (Table-2).

The third highest level of the food consumption is AnimalFat in EU-27, which was in Denmark by 422 kcal/person/day, in Belgium by 418 kcal/person/day in the second half of the first decade of 2000s, in Hungary by 375 kcal/person/day, in Austria by 320 kcal/person/day, while in Germany by 315 kcal/person/day, in France by 262 kcal/person/day and also in Portugal this was 234 kcal/person/day. The AnimalFat consumption was also dominate in Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland between 217 and 232 kcal/person/day. This food consumption trend shows, that the food consumption structure is very unfavourable for the health of consumers in the EU-27 (Table-2).

The fourth most important food was the Milk in EU-27, in which field the consumption was at highest level in Romania then Luxembourg, Ireland, Cyprus, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Latvia. The Netherland and United Kingdom are traditionally large milk-producers and in the same time large milk consumers. In spite that Germany, France, Denmark and Austria are also traditionally the biggest milk-producers, but their milk consumption is not so considerable, they are mostly chees consumers.

Also the Cheese consumption is the fifth most important food to be mentioned, in which field the consumption was at highest level in Greece, France, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Belgium and Czech Republic. The highest producing countries of cheese and dairy products traditionally are France, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria and Sweden, therefore the most of these population are consumers of these products.

The other food product consumption is also important, but their shares are not so considerable than four kinds of these products mentioned above. The average Wheat consumption has the biggest share of the all of the average food consumption in kcal/person/day by 44% and with other three most important food, they have 77% of all average food consumption in kcal/person/day in EU-27. Also the average food consumption of the EU-27, comparably to all of the first five EU member states, based on these data (see Table-2), namely Wheat by 758 (1016,8, as the highest level for the average food consumption in the first five EU member states in Table-2), PigMeat by 205 (314,4), AnimalFat by 189 (370), Milk by 164 (309), Cheese by 132 (220), PoultryMeat by 79,1 (117,4), BovineMeat by 67,2 (139,8) Rice by 48,3 (88,8) and Eggs by 45,9 (64,6). The all of the kinds of average food consumption was 187,6% based on the data base of the Table-2.

Figure-1: Food Consumption Structure in EU-27 in period of 2005-2010 in Dietary Energy Consumption (kcal/person/day)
Source: see in Table-1.

The Table-1, Figure-1 and the Table-2 show the data-base for the SPSS research methodology including EU-27 member states with the values of variances for each country based on the changing rate of the different kinds of food consumption. Also the Table-2 shows the order of the EU member states in the food consumption in each kind of different foods. The data-base coming from the FAO statistical data. The Table-3 shows four components consisting of 9 variances with their values, which determine the order of the variances in this SPSS system and their role in the score system of Figure-2 and Figure-3. The variances of the component first at principle line “X” and variances of other components at principle line “Y”.

In the Figure-2, in the First quarter of the score system, turn to the up-right side from the “Origo” the countries are Italy, Greece, Finland, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Malta. The Component-1 is consisting of three variances BovineMeat, Egg and AnimalFat at the principle line “X”. The Component-2 is consisting of other three variances Poultry, Milk and Cheese at the principle line “Y”. The Minus for the variances at two principle lines “X” and “Y” means that the consumption trend in fields of these kinds of foods are decreasing in the countries of the first up-right quarter or session of the score system, in spite that in the first up-right quarter of the score the value is generally positive for the variances.

Table-2: Order of the EU member states in consumption of each kinds of foods .in 2005-2010, Dietary Energy Consumption (kcal/person/day). The first order of member states from down.

The main general issues in this session of the score that in these countries the egg and the animal-fat food consumption is decreasing, while the bovine-meat consumption is increasing.

In the same time poultry-meat and milk consumption is decreasing, but the cheese consumption is increasing in the countries of this session.

Second quarter of the score system, turn to the up-left side the bovine-meat consumption decreasing, the egg and animal-fat consumption is increasing, while at the principle line “Y” in the same time poultry-meat and milk consumption is decreasing, but the cheese consumption is increasing in the countries of this session, similarly to the first session of the score. The countries are in this up-left side quarter, namely France, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, German, Slovakia and Netherlands (Zsarnóczai, 19966).

Third quarter of the score system, turn to the down-right side from the “Origo”: Portugal, Luxembourg, Estonia, United Kingdom, Lithuania, Ireland.

The main general issues in this session of the score that in these countries the egg and the animal-fat food consumption is decreasing, while the bovine-meat consumption is increasing.

In the same time poultry-meat and milk consumption is increasing, but the cheese consumption is decreasing in the countries of this session.

Fourth quarter of the score system, turn to the down-left side from the “Origo”: Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Spain, Romania, Cyprus.

The main general issues in this session of the score that in these countries the egg and the animal-fat food consumption is increasing, while the bovine-meat consumption is decreasing.

In the same time poultry-meat and milk consumption is increasing, but the cheese consumption is decreasing in the countries of this session.

In the Figure-3 the First quarter of the score system, turn to the up-right side from the “Origo”: Luxembourg, Finland, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Sweden and Ireland.

The Component-3 is consisting of other two variances, namely Wheat and PigMeat at the principle line “Y”.
The Minus for the variance of the Component-3 at the principle line “Y” means that the consumption trend in field
of this kind of foods is decreasing in the countries of the first session of the score system, in spite that in the first quarter of the score the value is generally positive for the variances.

Table-2: Continued

The main general issues in this session of the score that in these countries at the principle line “X” the egg and animal-fat kinds of food consumption is decreasing, while the bovine-meat consumption is increasing.

Table-3: Rotated Component Matrixa
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
a. Rotation converged in 16 iterations.
Source: Own calculation based on the SPSS statistical system

In the same time at principle line “Y” the Wheat consumption is decreasing, but the pig-meat consumption is increasing in the countries of this session.

Second quarter of the score system, turn to the up-left side from the “Origo”: Denmark, Austria, Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, Hungary and Latvia.

In this session of the score at principle line “X” and in the countries of this session the bovine-meat consumption decreasing, the egg and animal-fat consumption is increasing, while the at the principle line “Y” in the same time the Wheat consumption is decreasing, but the PigMeat consumption is increasing in the countries of this session, similarly to the first session of the score.

Third quarter of the score system, turn to the down-right side from the “Or igo”: Slovenia,Portugal, Estonia, Czech Republic, Lithuania Italy, Malta, Romania, Greece.

The main general issues in this session of the score at the principle line “X” that in these countries the egg and the animal-fat food consumption is decreasing, while the bovine-meat consumption is increasing.

In the same time Wheat consumption is increasing, but the PigMeat consumption is decreasing in the countries of this session.

Fourth quarter of the score system, turn to the down-left side from the “Origo”: Poland, Belgium, Slovakia, Bulgaria

Figure-2: REGR factor score 1 and 2 for analysis
Source: FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2010): FAO Statistical Yearbook 2010. FAO, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, 2010. http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/am081m/PDF/am081m00d.pdf
Component-1: BovineMeat, (Minus) Egg, (Minus) AnimalFat
Component-2: (Minus) Poultry, (Minus) Milk, Cheese

Figure-3: REGR factor score 1 and 3 for analysis
Source: FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2010): FAO Statistical Yearbook 2010. FAO, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, 2010. http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/am081m/PDF/am081m00d.pdf
Component-1: BovineMeat, (Minus) Egg, (Minus) AnimalFats,
Component-3: (Minus) Wheat, PigMeat

The main general issues in this session of the score that in these countries the egg and the animal-fat food consumption is increasing, while the bovine-meat consumption is decreasing.

In the same time the Wheat consumption is increasing, but the PigMeat consumption is deceasing in the countries of this session.

The study wanted to show the food-consumption structure in EU-27 in period of 2005-2010 in order to describe order of the different kinds of main food products and to describe the order of the EU member states based on the food consumption. Some kinds of different food products have main role in the food consumption in EU-27, which have strong correlations or significance among themselves. These correlations and significance can provide a possible overview of the food consumption structure and create food production strategy for experts. The main most important kinds of food the wheat, as healthful, and then pig-meat and animal fats. The three less important food products are as eggs, rice and bovine meat in EU.

Conclusion

The SPSS analyses clearly show how the average food consumption has been created by the market demands of the EU-27 for the last decades and how the Purchase Power Parity of the traditional consumers of each EU member state could make influences on the consuming trends. The data for the average food consumption of the EU-27 shows the order of the different kinds of food consumption. This average food consumption concentration in the first five EU member states is connecting with traditional production and consumption structure, which has created for the historical periods or for the last century or the last decades. Also it can be declared that the case of each variance for 27 countries within the Ward Method analysing system is included completely by 100% without “Excluding” in percent, as it is proofed in the tables of the study.

References

1 Lentner Cs – Farkas R (2004): Kritische Punkte der Wirtschaftsentwicklung in Ungarn ZEITSCHRIFT FUR GEMEINWIRTSCHAFT: ZGW 39:(6) pp. 7-18.
2 Sajtos L – Mitev A (2006): SPSS kutatási és adatelemzési kézikönyv (Handbook of SPSS researching and data analyse). Alinea Kiadó, p. 402
3 Lentner Cs (2007): The Competitiveness of Hungarian University Based – Knowledge Centres in European Economic and Higher Education Area. TRANSFORMATIONS IN BUSINESS & ECONOMICS 6:(2) pp. 87-100.
4 FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2010): FAO Statistical Yearbook 2010. FAO, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, 2010. http://www.fao.org/docrep/015/am081m/PDF/am081m00d.pdf
5 See more detailed about German agricultural and food production in Zsarnóczai J S (1996): Németország mezôgazdasági helyzete az 1990-es évek elsô felében (Agricultural conditions of Germany in the first half of 1990s). STATISZTIKAI SZEMLE / Statistical Review / 74:(3) pp. 230-238.