German pig slaughterhouses froze considerably more in 2021

Last year, 19,3% of all goods stored in German cold stores consisted of pork, measured by the pallet space used. In previous years this percentage was around 12% to 13%. This illustrates the difficult situation on the German pig market.

Frozen extra meat since the summer
Although the stored volumes were also above the level of 2019 and 2020 in the first half of the year, additional use was made of available freezing capacity, especially in the second half of the year. In the summer, the stored volumes reached record highs, which could be reduced slightly in the autumn as a result of the revival of the meat trade around the holidays.

However, in December, stored stocks rose sharply again, which limited the options for storage in the traditionally difficult January month. In December, pork accounted for more than 23,1% of goods stored in cold stores. This involved 350.000 euro pallets of pork. In November this was 19,1% and 289.000 pallets. On average, one pallet of meat contains 655 kilos of meat.

Export halved, consumption lower
German pig slaughterers saw pork exports almost halved last year, compared to 2020. In the period between January and November, more than 506.000 tons of pork were sold across the border. For the whole of 2020, the volume sold across the border was 1.019.000 tonnes.

In addition to the deteriorated export situation, German slaughterers report that the corona crisis is also having a serious impact. Traditionally, a lot of pork is consumed at events in Germany. A spokesperson for one of Germany's largest pig slaughterers reported that pork consumption in the country may have decreased by 5% to 10%, something that is in line with the reduction in Europe mentioned by van Rooi last year. of 15%.