An Economic Study of the Demand for Red Meat in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia using Almost Ideal Demand System

Animal protein is one of the most important food products essential for normal growth of human body. The main objective of this study were to assess the demand of Saudi red meat, to estimate the system of Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) on various types of red meat and study the variances of price elasticity, cross elasticity and income elasticity according to the types and sources of meat in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Mean spending (billion Saudi Riyals) on different types of meat ranged from 9.533-23.607, 1.554-7.064 and 1.377-3.418 for red meat, fish and poultry, respectively. The average consumption per capita increased to 16.96, 9.80 and 5.90 kg year-1 for red meat, fish and poultry, respectively. The mean annual change rate was 0.034, 0.57 and 0.72% for red meat, fish and poultry, respectively. While, the annual growth rate was 50.24, 4.81 and 8.77% for red meat, fish and poultry, respectively. The value of coefficient of Uncompensated own price elasticity showed that the demand of red meat and fish is flexible and that of poultry is inflexible. Furthermore, the value of coefficient of compensated own price elasticity showed that red meat and fish are complementary goods. The increase of fish price increased the consumption of red meat which indicated that red meat and poultry are competitive commodities. However, an increase of red meat price will increase the consumption of poultry. The study highlighted the potential indicators affecting the red meat demand as compared to other meat sources i.e., fish and poultry.