The European pork production is stabilizing again

Pork

After significant declines in the European pork production in the past two years, Eurostat figures indicate a stabilization this year. According to them, 0.7% more pigs were slaughtered in the first eight months of the year than in the same period last year. However, the development in the individual member states was very different.

Posted on Dec 01 ,00:10

According to preliminary data from the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), between January and August 2024, around 146 million pigs were slaughtered in the reporting slaughterhouses in the 27 EU member states. That was around 1.1 million animals or 0.7% more than in the first eight months of the previous year. Due to the higher slaughter weights, pork production even increased by 1.9% to 13.9 million tonnes. This indicates that the downward trend of the past two years has now stopped, where the declines were very significant at 8.1% (2023) and 3.1% (2022).

In 17 EU-27 countries, pig slaughterings increased, while in ten countries they decreased. Pig slaughterings increased in the eastern EU member states in particular: in Croatia, the increase compared to the previous year was 8.3%, in Poland 7.5%, in Bulgaria 7.2%, in Romania 6.0%, in Hungary 6.3%, in the Czech Republic 5.3% and in Estonia 3.4%. A slight increase of 1.0% was also recorded in Germany. Slaughterings fell in the Netherlands (-3.0%), Denmark (-2.6%), Spain (-0.5%) and Austria (-1.1%), among others. It is noteworthy that in Denmark, the amount of pork produced was higher than in the previous year despite the declining number of animals. Due to the 5 kg higher slaughter weight, 2.5% more pork was produced from January to August of the current year than in the first eight months of the previous year.