4315.0 - Apparent Consumption of Selected Foodstuffs, Australia, Preliminary, 1997-98  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 23/11/1998  Ceased
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MEDIA RELEASE

November 23, 1998
Embargoed 11:30am (AEST)
125/98

Light beer and wine consumption continues to grow

Australians are continuing to drink more light beer, a style now accounting for more than a quarter of all beer consumed, according to 1997-98 preliminary consumption estimates released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

On average, Australians drank 24.9 litres each of low alcohol beer in 1997-98, a rise of 3.6 per cent on the previous year. Consumption of full strength beer declined by 2.0 per cent to 70.1 litres per person.

However, consumption of full strength beer and total beer is falling. Overall, total beer consumption showed a marginal decline at 95.0 litres per person. Wine consumption rose 3.5 per cent to 19.7 litres per person, while soft drink consumption fell 2.3 per cent with 111.7 litres consumed per capita.

The apparent consumption of tea and coffee remained steady with per capita intake of tea at 0.8 kilograms and coffee at 2.3 kilograms.

Consumption of meat and meat products continued to fluctuate falling 1.8 per cent to 74.2 kilograms per person in 1997-98. Major contributors to this decline were beef, down 3.2 per cent to 36.6 kilograms and lamb, down marginally to 10.9 kilograms per person. These falls were offset by pigmeat, up marginally to 17.8 kilograms per person and poultry, which rose 8.1 per cent to 30.7 kilograms per person.

Milk consumption remained relatively steady at 103.7 litres per person in 1997-98. Similarly, cheese consumption remained at 10.9 kilograms per person. However, other dairy products showed significant change. Powdered full cream milk fell by nearly a third to 0.8 kilograms per person, while the skim milk variety fell by nearly 20.0 percent to 1.8 kilograms per person.

Butter consumption rose 3.5 per cent to 2.9 kilograms per person, while the consumption of dairy blends remained static at 0.8 kilograms per person. Consumption of table margarine declined by 5.9 per cent in 1997-98 to 4.4 kilograms per person. However, the per capita consumption of other margarine rose, by 20.4 per cent to 2.3 kilograms.

Details are in Apparent Consumption of Selected Foodstuffs, Australia, 1997-98 Preliminary (cat. no. 4315.0) available in ABS bookshops in all capital cities. The main features of the publication are available from this site.