Pig sector cashes in on Chinese demand

No wonder the European pig market has been on the rise since 2016. A lot of "foreign" money is flowing into the sector. In the period from March 2016 to February 2017, the pig sector in Europe earned a total of 5,4 billion euros from exports on the world market. 

This is evident from figures from Eurostat. The reason for the explicit increase is mainly due to the increased demand from China. Almost half of the export volume was sent to China. 

Shrinkage of the pig population
The underlying reason for this demand is a sharp decline in the Chinese pig population. In the second half of 2016 in particular, the export figures were excellent. The volumes were even 40 percent higher than in the same period one year earlier. 

Europe earns from China
The countries with a large pig herd in particular benefit from the good export. More than 80 percent of European pork production takes place in 8 European countries.

Germany was by far the largest producer with 24 percent. Germany earned more than 1 billion euros from exports outside Europe. Proportionally, Spain benefits even more from exports, as the Spaniards fished in between 1,23 billion euros. The other countries: France, Poland, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium mainly distributed the remaining more than 3 billion euros. 

Wouter Job

Wouter Baan is editor-in-chief of Boerenbusiness. He also focuses on dairy, pig and meat markets. He also follows (business) developments within agribusiness and interviews CEOs and policymakers.

w.baan@boerenbusiness. Nl

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