EU pork market: Production gains and weaker exports in the first half of the year

Pig meat production in the EU-27 has seen some resurgence in growth in the first six months of the year compared to 2023. Across the continent, production totaled 10.5m tonnes in the first half of 2024, up 164,000 tonnes (2%) from 2023. This growth has been driven by production gain across most EU nations. Poland saw the largest increase up 80,000 tonnes to sit at 934,000 tonnes so far this year. Germany, the second largest producer in the EU, made production gains of nearly 19,000 tonnes to reach just under 2.1m tonnes up to June, while Danish production grew 2% to 673,000 tonnes. However, Spain (the largest producer in the EU) saw a decline of just over 27,000 tonnes to 2.46m tonnes in 2024 so far. On the whole, gains in production over the past year have been driven by increased slaughter numbers. Slaughter in the EU-27 bloc grew by 122,000 head up to June 2024, to sit at just under 110m head. Polish pig kill increased by 634,000 head (7%) to total 9.7m head so far in 2024, ...