Pig stock again above 12 million

Eurostat's December census shows that Poland records the largest percentage growth. The pig herd there has grown by 7,1% to 11,8 million pigs. This does not yet make the Poles surpass the Netherlands. The Dutch pig herd has increased by 3,5% to 12,3 million pigs. In 2016 this was still less than 12 million, but that appears to be an incident.

Spain strengthens its leading position
The Spanish pig herd breaks the 30 million pig mark for the first time (+3,1%). Also Danish pig farmers expand. The pig herd there has increased by more than 500.000 heads to 12,8 million heads. Great Britain increased by 2% and now has 4,6 million pigs. The smallest percentage growth is for Germany, with a pig herd of 27,5 million (+0,6%). This means that the Spanish pig herd is expanding further.

There are also minuses; for example in Belgium with 6,1 million pigs (-1,1%). In Eastern Europe, Romania demands attention with a minus of 5,7% to 4,7 million. The threat of African swine fever may be to blame for this, although no outbreaks are officially known in Romania.

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Sow herd is also growing
In the EU-26, the sow herd increased by 1,4% to 12 million sows. Of these, 8,2 million (+0,2%) were registered as pregnant last December. Here too, the Netherlands, together with Poland, is one of the largest growers. The Dutch sow herd has increased by 4,3% to 1,06 million, of which 690.000 are pregnant sows (+2,7%).

The German sow herd has experienced a minimal shrinkage of 0,2% to 1,9 million, of which 1,3 million (-1,3%) are pregnant sows. The Spanish sow herd is growing by 2,6% to 2,4 million, but the number of pregnant sows is down 2% to 1,63 million.