All of these factors led to a decline in pork production in the region in 2022 to the lowest annual volume since 2014, to 22.1 million tons. This is down 5.6% (-1.3 million tons) year-on-year.
All major producing countries saw a significant decline, but it was most noticeable for Germany. In general, Germany has been recording an annual decline in production of 2-3% since 2017, but in 2022 it was almost 10%. A loss of almost 500 thousand tons over 12 months was recorded. In 2022, Poland, Spain, Denmark, and Belgium faced a decline in annual production by 110-180 thousand tons.
The decline in slaughter numbers was the driving force behind the decline in production. The total number of pigs in the EU in 2022 amounted to 237 million heads, which is the lowest recorded figure since 2014 and a sharp drop in annual terms - by 12.6 million heads (-5.1%). The largest decrease by country was observed in Germany (-4.8 million heads), Poland (-1.9 million heads), Spain (-1.7 million heads) and Belgium (-1.1 million heads).
PigUA.info by agrotimes.ua