The leading meat chain by value in the Italian food industry

The drop in domestic consumption, attacks from environmentalists and the threat of new animal diseases are not stopping the Italian meat industry's desire to invest. On the contrary, it is relaunching on the front of sustainability and renewable energy production with innovative technologies in a circular economy of which livestock farms are an integral part.

As emerged from the Nomisma report presented at the 2025 General Assembly of Uniceb, the national association of the meat industry, held in Rome, the Italian meat industry is the first sector of the national agriculture by production value with 12,8 billion turnover, 19% of the total, the food processing industry by turnover (28.5 billion, 19% of the total) and the second largest sector of the food industry by active employment with over 63 thousand employees, 15% of the total.

It is not the first in terms of exported products, but the cured meats industry is a feather in the cap of Made in Italy agro-foods and total exports in 2024 touched the 5 billion mark with a growth of 64% in the last 10 years, mainly achieved on the EU market. A figure that can be read positively given the prospect of new US tariffs. On the consumption front, the consolidated trends are those of a growth in poultry meat, a substantial stability for pork and a continuous decline in beef consumption (which, if you like, matches that of red wines).

"Our supply chains that have always been attacked in terms of the environment, animal welfare, and product wholesomeness have, on the contrary, proved to be very resilient," stressed Clara Fossato, secretary general of the association, "capable of improving their sustainability performance, animal welfare conditions, and of innovating production processes in general and their structures, to react to the multiplicity of animal diseases that have recently reappeared on our territories and to fully exploit the funds of the NRP and the complementary ones to carry out all those interventions using mature technologies able not only to make their farms less and less dependent on fossil fuels, but to produce energy themselves from renewable sources'.

In this direction, Uniceb is consolidating its partnership with Enac, the National Civil Aviation Authority, to value slaughter waste such as animal fats for the production of biofuel for civil aviation. And still on the subject of renewable energies, the Gse, the energy services manager, confirmed at the assembly the growth in the use of the various technologies that companies in the sector are focusing on for energy efficiency. With regard to connections, it also indicated that the 'end of work' will be sufficient to obtain reimbursement for the measures.