About the year 2016
EU pig production: more meat, less pigs
Pork production within the European Union has risen to a record level in the past year. Compared to 2015, the volume increased by 1,4 percent to more than 23 million tons. This is shown by figures from Eurostat.
The previous record, of 22,9 million tons, dates from 2007. It is striking that this record was broken with fewer slaughtered pigs. The countries with the most growth are Spain, Poland and Italy. So far, 2007 has been the most productive year for the European pig sector.
257
million
At the time, this volume was achieved with approximately 260 million slaughtered pigs. The new record for 2016 has been set with more than 257 million pig slaughters. This means that the extra tons of meat are the result of increasing slaughter weights and not of extra pigs. A pig weighed in 2007, in the EU, an average of 88,4 kilos. In 2016, the weights recorded an average of 90,3 kilos. In the Netherlands, a slaughtered pig usually weighs between 94 and 95 kilos, which means that the Netherlands scores well above the European average. A
Compared to 2015, the number of slaughters in Europe increased by 0,6 percent, which in absolute numbers amounts to 1,6 million pigs. The driving force behind this growth is Spain, where the number of slaughterings increased by 2016 million pigs in 1,3. That is a plus of 2,9 percent to 47,7 million slaughters. Because of the heavier pigs, Spanish meat production even increased by 5,3 percent to more than 4 million tons.
The Netherlands and Germany stable
In Germany, the slaughter figure stagnated to around 59 million pigs, while meat production was stable at 5,6 million tons of meat. The production of pork in the Netherlands saw a minimal increase in 2016 to 1,47 million tons from 15,6 million slaughters. That's a plus of nearly 100.000 pig slaughters.
Countries in Europe that realize growth with considerably more slaughter are Poland and Italy. In Poland, the number of slaughters increased by 500.000 animals to 21,7 million pigs. Italian slaughterhouses achieved a comparable increase and processed a total of 11,8 million pigs. This brought the production level in Italy to 1,54 million tons. It is striking that Italy slaughters about 3,5 million less pigs than the Netherlands, while meat production is 700.000 tons above the Dutch volume.
Wouter Job
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