Germany: pig slaughter down in 2019

According to preliminary results, commercial slaughterhouses in Germany slaughtered 59.7 million pigs, cows, sheep, goats and horses in 2019. Including poultry, companies produced a total of nearly 8.0 million tons of meat. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Destatis), the amount of meat produced fell by 1.4% compared to 2018. The decrease results from lower pork production, while beef and poultry production increased compared to the previous year.

Pigs: slaughter volume decreased by 2.6%

With 55.1 million animals slaughtered in 2019, the total number of pigs slaughtered was 3.0% lower than the previous year. The number of domestic pigs slaughtered decreased 3.4% to 51.8 million animals, while the number of imported pigs slaughtered in Germany increased 2.7% to 3.3 million. In total, 5.2 million tonnes of pork were produced in 2019, 2.6% less than in 2018.