A Map Of The World's Biggest Horse Meat Suppliers

According to the most recent data from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the largest producer of horse meat in the world is China, which produced 170,848 tonnes of horse meat in 2010.

Check out this interactive map of horse meat production around the world. Mouse over countries to see how much horse meat they produced in 2010. A darker color indicates more production.

Even though Congress pulled federal funding to inspect horse meat destined for consumption in the U.S. in 2007, 68,444 tonnes of horse meat were produced in the country in 2010, according to the FAO. In 2011, Congress lifted the ban on funding horse meat inspections.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office:

Since fiscal year 2006, Congress has annually prohibited the use of federal funds to inspect horses destined for food, effectively prohibiting domestic slaughter.

Since domestic horse slaughter ceased in 2007, the slaughter horse market has shifted to Canada and Mexico. From 2006 through 2010, U.S. horse exports for slaughter increased by 148 and 660 percent to Canada and Mexico, respectively.

Here's the data we used for the map in a table: