Pig meat production in the EU totalled 1.9 million tonnes in May, up 1.3% compared to a year earlier, according to the latest figures by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).
Throughput was also up year-on-year, with just over 20 million pigs sent through abattoirs. According to AHDB, this is the first year-on-year increase in monthly pig meat production since November 2021.
Growth came mainly from France, Spain, and Denmark where pig meat production was up by 8.5%, 2.8% and 7.9% respectively. Production was also up in Italy and the Netherlands after recording drops across the first half of the year.
However, year-to-date pig meat production in the EU totalled 9.5 million tonnes by May, 3.8% below the same period last year. Whilst this is in line with the latest EU short term outlook, a 4% drop in production for the calendar year is expected.
AHDB said that high input costs “remain an issue”, with farm margins expected to remain under pressure.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
