October 26, 2022

Drop in Germany's pig feed production in 2021/22 period

Germany's volume of pig feed production has fell by 7.6% in the 2021/22 period, due to a lower pig inventory.

According to the Federal Information Center for Agriculture (BZL), 281 companies produced a total of 22.9 million tonnes of compound feed during the 2021/22 harvest; in the previous year, 23.9 million tonnes were produced.

While Germany's production volume of pig feed fell in the period, it still remained the most important feed segment at 9.1 million tonnes. Cattle feed production remained in second place with 6.5 million tonnes (-4.3%).

At 2.43 million tonnes, soybean meal again ranked just above rapeseed meal (2.42 million tonnes). The trend observed over the past four years, in which soybean meal was increasingly being replaced by rapeseed meal, has therefore come to a halt. The reasons are the smaller rapeseed crop in Germany in 2021 and the war in Ukraine, which has reduced the supply of rapeseed on the global market.

Legume production increased by 14% compared to the previous year, with 200,398 tonnes. Production of other legumes such as peas, sweet lupins, peas and broad beans saw the highest growth of around 30%.

In contrast, grain processing declined. Barley and triticale were the most affected, with reductions of 20% (55,323 tonnes) and 17% (145,651 tonnes), respectively.

- BLE (Germany)