Most game meat comes from abroad
The majority of game meat sold in Switzerland is imported. In recent years, the domestic share has steadily increased slightly, reaching a record high of 38.4% in 2022. Most of the imported game comes from Europe.
Swiss recreational hunters cannot meet demand
Autumn is game season: game meat finds its way onto Swiss plates almost exclusively during the last four months of the year.
The meat sold in retail, however, does not come from Swiss recreational hunting. The yields are too small for that; the recreational hunters consume the game themselves, sell it directly, or it goes into the restaurant trade.
Number of farmed animals has increased significantly
The meat in retail comes from farms. Swiss farmers keep sika, fallow, and red deer; there are also occasional reindeer farms. The number of farmed animals in Switzerland has grown over the years — for example, the number of fallow deer has doubled over the past 20 years to more than 10’000 animals.
High hurdles for farmers
The reasons why Swiss game meat remains in the minority and continues to be a niche product are varied. Per capita consumption of game last year stood at 480 grams, meaning game consumption is fundamentally a niche market.
Deer have been classified as agricultural livestock since the 1990s, yet at the same time as wild animals. Consequently, keeping them requires specialist training as well as a permit for keeping wild animals.
Austria is import country No. 1
Imports come predominantly from Europe. In 2022, according to the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, traders imported 696 tonnes of game meat (excluding wild boar and hares) from Austria, 549 tonnes from Slovenia, and 490 tonnes from Germany. From overseas, the traditional game-exporting country New Zealand stands out with 378 tonnes of game meat.
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More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. The scientific evidence is presented in the overview Studies on the Effects of Recreational Hunting.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
