January 21, 2010

Netherlands exports more piglets and finishers in 2009

Over the year 2009, almost one million additional piglets have been exported in comparison to 2008, while exports of finishers grew by 375,000 year-on-year.

In total, piglet exports in 2009 grew by 18.5%. In the year 2008, a total of 5.15 million piglets were transported abroad; one year later this went up to 6.1 million piglets. Approximately half of this amount went to Germany, 14% to Poland and 12% to Belgium. The market share for Germany and Poland grew 1% and 4% respectively.

Other markets with growth potential were Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

As for finisher pigs, the growth percentage in 2009 was 8.7%. In 2009, a total of 4.7 million finisher pigs were exported; one year earlier this was 4.3 million. Last year, 76.5% of the finishers went to Germany, 10% to Hungary and 6.8% to Poland.

Export data also tell that about 45% of the animals produced in the Netherlands will travel abroad either as a piglet or as a finisher.

Last week, Dutch Product Board for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE) published data on the gross domestic production of finishers in the Netherlands. These also went up, by 4.4%.

The number of slaughterings decreased by 1.7%, but live imports increased 11% and live exports increased 14.1%. Average slaughterweight (dw) in the Netherlands increased in 2009 to 92.3kg.

In tonnes, the gross domestic production grew 3.2%. In absolute figures, the gross production grew from 1.75 million tonnes to 1.80 million tonnes. Meat consumption in total grew from 669,000 tonnes to 688,000 tonnes – a 2.9% increase.

Taking population growth and meat consumption into account, the PVE concluded that the Netherlands reached a self-sufficiency rate of 263%, which is 1% more than in 2008.