AHDB analyst Freya Shuttleworth reports that the EU’s estimated pork production for June and July was 1.78 million and 1.66 million tonnes, respectively. June decreased by 5.7% year-on-year, and July decreased by 8.4%. This brings the estimated annual EU27 production (January to July) to 12.95 million tonnes, the lowest since 2017.

For the six most important producing countries, annual figures so far only show Spain, which shows annual growth, albeit only 0.2%. Germany saw the biggest year-on-year change, with a 10.1% decline in 2022. Poland and Denmark also recorded significant declines of 9.2% and 4.0% respectively. France and the Netherlands each decreased by about 1.5%.

The decline in production was caused by a drop in slaughter. Estimated slaughter in June and July was 19.23 million and 18.13 million, down 5.2% and 7.8% respectively from last year. Part of this decrease is likely due to the heat waves seen in Europe and the Northern Hemisphere over the past two months. This puts an estimated 137.91 million pigs slaughtered to date in the EU27 (January to July), the lowest slaughter recorded in the last five years.

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Source: AHDB