February 27, 2023

Belgium's pig slaughter dropped nearly 10% last year

The number of pigs slaughtered in Belgium fell by almost 10% in 2022, to a level not seen in 30 years.

The country saw just under 310 million livestock animals slaughtered last year, a decrease of 2% compared to 2021, according to figures from the Belgian statistics agency Statbel.

The number of pigs slaughtered plunged last year to 10.5 million pigs. This is about one million pigs less than the 11.6 million slaughtered in 2021. Based on weight, pigs still account for the largest share of livestock slaughter in Belgium with 1.03 billion kilogrammes, making up 60% of the total slaughtered weight in 2022.

The number of cattle slaughtered also fell to the lowest level in at least 40 years.

In 2022, about 755,000 cattle were slaughtered, down 2% from the year prior and down almost 18% from the peak year in 2017 with more than 920,000 cattle slaughtered.

Chicken slaughter was also down 2% in 2022 with 298 million units slaughtered.

 - Vilt