July 10, 2023

Germany's pig inventory drops 7.3% in May

The pig inventory in Germany stood at 20.7 million head as of May 3, down 3.1% (-651,800 animals) from November 3, 2022, and down 7.3% (-1.62 million animals) from May 3, 2022, according to preliminary data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

The inventory is down 16.1% (-3.99 million animals) compared to two years ago. The downward trend in German pig production is therefore continuing. Never since German unification in 1990 has there been such a low herd size (in 1990, there were 30.8 million animals).

By category, there were 9.5 million finishing pigs in Germany as of May 3, 2023, a decrease of 1.7% (-169,200 animals) compared to half a year earlier. The number of piglets decreased even more significantly by 5.2% (-330,300 animals) to six million. The number of pigs under 50kg fell by 3.2% (-124,800 animals) to 3.7 million.

In addition, the number of pig farms also continued to decrease. As of May 3, there were 15,900 pig farms, down 6% (-1,000 farms) from November 3, 2022. Compared to May of the previous year, the number of pig farms has decreased by 10.8% (-1,900) and by 19.3% (-3,800) compared to May 2021.

- Destatis