Corona shuts down large German sow slaughterhouse

The German sow slaughterhouse Westcrown, a joint venture of Danish Crown and Westfleisch, has been forced to close for the time being. A third of the approximately 300 slaughterhouse employees is infected with the corona virus, according to test results.

The location of Westcrown is in Dissen, near Osnabrück. This is the heart of the German pig sector in the state of Lower Saxony. Westcrown was founded in 2015 and became operational a year later. Just under 700.000 breeding sows are slaughtered every year, which amounts to between 10.000 and 15.000 slaughters per week.

The impact of the failure of the sow slaughterhouse will become clear in the coming weeks. The demand for slaughter sows had already collapsed in recent weeks, because there are hardly any outlets for meat. As a result, the sow quotations entered a free fall, the bottom of which has not yet been reached. 

Danish Crown
Following the closure of Westcrown, Danish Crown has decided not to slaughter sows at least today (Monday 18 May) at the slaughter site in Skærbæk (South Jutland). The carcasses are normally boned by Westcrown, but that is not possible now. Whether sow slaughter starts up again during the week depends on whether it is possible to find other buyers. “This will be a challenging task,” said Søren F. Eriksen, CEO of Danish Crown Pork.

The closure of the sow slaughterhouse is yet another setback for the troubled pig market. Slaughter locations (pigs) of Westfleisch and Müller Fleisch were previously affected by a corona outbreak. Vion's cattle division in Germany is also struggling with infections. The coronavirus also strikes slaughterhouses in Spain and the United States. In the Netherlands, the problems have so far been limited. 

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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