Germany: Meat production down 4 percent in 2023
After comparatively slight declines from 2017, meat production fell by 8.1% in 2022 compared to the previous year, and now meat production fell again significantly in 2023. A total of 47.9 million pigs, cattle, sheep, goats and horses as well as 702.2 million chickens, turkeys and ducks were slaughtered in slaughterhouses in 2023.
Pork: slaughter volume decreased by 6.8%
With 43.8 million animals slaughtered in 2023, the number of pigs slaughtered fell by 7.0% or 3.3 million compared to the previous year. The number of pigs of domestic origin slaughtered fell by 7.7% to almost 42.3 million animals. The number of imported pigs slaughtered in German slaughterhouses, however, rose by 19.5% to 1.5 million animals.
In total, slaughterhouses produced around 4.2 million tons of pork in 2023. That was 6.8% or 306,500 tons less than in 2022.
Compared to the record year of 2016, around 1.4 million tonnes less pork were produced in 2023, which corresponds to a decline of over a quarter (-25.1%).
Beef: Slaughter volume at previous year's level
The number of cattle slaughtered commercially in 2023 fell by 0.3% to 3.0 million animals compared to 2022. However, as the average slaughter weights increased in all cattle categories, the slaughter volume increased slightly by +0.6% to 992,900 tonnes of beef.
Poultry meat: slaughter quantity increased by 1.4%
The amount of poultry meat produced increased by 1.4% to 1.6 million tons in 2023 compared to 2022. The main reason for the increase is the 1.1% increase in production of young broiler meat to 1.1 million tons. Turkey meat production increased by 2.7% to 417,000 tons.
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