EU pork production at lowest level in almost a decade

For European pork producers the last 12 months have been challenging (as they have been here in the UK) with input costs soaring, further outbreaks of ASF, new greening requirements and the consumer cost of living to name but a few headline challenges. This has led to pig meat production for the region falling to the lowest annual volume since 2014 in 2022, to total 22.1million tonnes, a year on year decline of 5.6% (-1.3million tonnes). All key producing nations saw significant decline, but most noticeable was Germany. Although Germany has been recording production declines since 2017, the annual decline has only been in the region of 2-3%, however in 2022 the annual decline stood at almost 10%. A loss of nearly half a million tonnes in 12months. Poland, Spain, Denmark, and Belgium each recorded annual production declines between 110,000-180,000 tonnes in 2022. Reducing slaughter numbers have been the driving force behind the production decline. Total pig kill for the EU27 stood ...