April 28, 2009

The European Commission is expecting pig production in Europe to decrease by 2.3 percent, or 6 million pigs, as comparison to 2008, according to German agricultural statistics agency ZMP.

Especially in Eastern Europe, production will shrink once more due to insufficient profitability of pig production in these countries. First, higher feed prices caused losses, now the consequences of the financial crisis do.

In Germany, Europe's largest pig producer, the domestic pig herd will shrink by 1.5 percent, mainly because of a reduction of the sow herd.

The supply of slaughter pigs is not expected to shrink that much, but until mid-April 2009, slaughterhouses reported an increase of over 600,000 pigs - a year-on-year increase of almost 5 percent.