June 30, 2009

Danish pig slaughterhouses have already shed some 1,600 jobs this and last year, and the decline may well continue, sector publication Ugebrevet A4 reported.

The sector has been especially pressed by competition from Germany, as well as by the fact that Danish farmers are increasingly exporting small pigs to Germany where they are fattened and slaughtered. The exports of pigs have more than quadrupled in the last 10 years.

According to Danish pork producers Danske Svineproducenter chairman Torben Poulsen, exports are likely to continue growing substantially, thus fewer pigs would be kept for slaughtering in Denmark.

The decline in the slaughtering sector in Denmark has also been due to the fact that German slaughterhouses outsource their work to eastern European players at low cost.