How much have live exports fallen?

Due to the forced closure of Tönnies due to corona infections among staff, sales opportunities fell sharply. It became increasingly difficult to find sales for Dutch fattening pigs and piglets. Export numbers have therefore stagnated sharply: In week 24, almost 35.300 fattening pigs were still exported to Germany. This meant the level was even 34% above last year's figures.

Since that week, however, sales to Germany have stagnated sharply. In week 25, sales fell to a comparable level to last year at 29.500 fattening pigs, and in week 26 around 18.500 fattening pigs were exported. In just 2 weeks, sales of fattening pigs to Germany have almost halved, but it did not stop there. In week 28 the level reached approximately 14.150 fattening pigs.

Piglet export
Piglet exports have also had to deal with adverse consequences of the corona crisis. The total Dutch piglet export reached almost 25 piglets in week 144.500. In week 28 this number was only approximately 94.200 piglets. Exports to all major export countries decreased, more sharply in some countries than in others.

Sales to Germany played the largest role in the total decrease. In week 25, more than 94.500 piglets were exported to Germany, making the level approximately 5% higher than last year. In the following week, just under 72.500 more piglets were exported and the level was 16,5% lower than last year. In just 1 week, sales to Germany decreased by approximately 23% this year. This has not yet reached the low point, because in week 28 the counter was less than 58.700

Expectation
The significant decrease goes hand in hand with the closing date of Tönnies. It was of course already clearly palpable on the market that sales opportunities were difficult. The decline in export figures will probably continue until week 30. Now that Tönnies has opened its doors again last week, after a closure period of 4 weeks, it is expected that sales opportunities will gradually return to normal.