Pig farming in Brandenburg is in sharp decline: New figures from the Office for Statistics show a historic low in livestock numbers and the number of farms. Besides animal diseases, structural changes in the regional slaughter infrastructure are considered key drivers of this trend.
Pig farming in Brandenburg has reached a historic low. According to preliminary results from the latest survey, published by the Berlin-Brandenburg Office for Statistics, only 529,000 pigs were being kept in Brandenburg as of May 3, 2026. This is the lowest number since 1990 and represents a loss of nearly 56,000 animals, or 9.5%, compared to November 2025. Simultaneously, the number of pig farms shrank by 13%, or 15 farms, within just six months, to only 105 active pig farmers. The long-term comparison illustrates the drastic nature of this structural change: In 2011, there were still 225 pig farms in Brandenburg, meaning their number has more than halved in the past 15 years.
The decline in pig populations affected all categories. Fattening pigs were particularly hard hit, with their numbers plummeting by almost 15% to 118,000 in just six months. The breeding sow population decreased by almost 9% to 56,000 animals, while the number of piglets and young pigs shrank by almost 8% to 354,000.
This trend is also reflected in the slaughter figures. In 2025, 799,000 pigs were slaughtered in Brandenburg, the lowest number since 1991 – a decrease of 23% compared to the previous year.
Key reasons for this development are the economic consequences of African swine fever in Brandenburg, the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in early 2025, and the closure of the slaughterhouse in Perleberg (approximately 24,000 pigs slaughtered per week) in December 2025. The loss of regional slaughter infrastructure forces producers to transport their animals long distances to Weißenfels in Saxony-Anhalt, driving up logistics costs.
