Slaughterhouses struggle to find pigs

In the past week, 299.000 pigs were slaughtered, bringing the figure back below the 1 mark since week 300.000. The figures confirm the reports from slaughterhouses that it is currently difficult to fill the slaughter hooks.

The rising prices are causing a (small) portion of fattening pig farmers to decide to hold on to the pigs, although the impact of this on the Dutch pig supply is relatively large. In addition, based on the count in DecemberIt is likely that the pig supply will decrease in the coming months. The average slaughter weight (98,70 kilos) remains on the high side compared to other years.

Few pigs in Germany
In Germany, 905.162 pigs were slaughtered last week. For a full slaughter week, this number is (very) low, given that the capacity of German slaughterhouses can easily exceed 1 million. Due to shortages, in combination with the smoothly running meat exports to China, the German pig price (the VEZG quotation) has risen by €0,30 in recent weeks to €1,70 per kilo.

Since slaughter weights have been stable at around 98 kilos for weeks, the declining slaughter figure cannot only be due to fattening pig farmers holding on to the pigs. The decline is most likely the result of the shrunken pig herd, which reached a 10-year low last December. This means that supply is likely to remain scarce in the coming months.

Also few slaughter sows
So far this year, 12,2 million pigs have been slaughtered in Germany, which is 3,5% less than in the same period in 2018. The slaughter figure also includes 221.311 slaughter sows. This is 6,1% less than in 2018, which confirms that the supply of sows for slaughter is currently scarce.