Highlights

All data given by Defra for the current period is provisional.

• UK slaughterings of clean pigs in 2008 stood at 9,193,300, 0.9 per cent below the figure for 2007.
• Slaughterings of sows and boars in the UK in 2008 totalled 235,100, 12 per cent more than the previous year.
• Figures for EU slaughterings are available only to the end of September 2008. In that month. 21.085 million pigs were slaughtered across all 27 EU countries.
• The average killed and dressed pig carcass weight in the UK in 2008 was 76.6 kg. This continues a gradual upward trend: in 1987, the average weight was 62.2 kg, while it stood at 76.2 kg in 2007.
• The average for sows and boars was 151.3 kg, almost the same as last year.
• Total pig meat production in the UK in December 2008 was 55,000 tonnes, of which 45,000 tonnes was pork and 10,000 tonnes of bacon. In the same month in 2007, volumes were 58,000, 47,000 and 11,000 tonnes, respectively.
• The UK's home-cured bacon and ham production in the fourth quarter of 2008 totalled 49,000 tonnes. Of this total, 28,000 tonnes (58 per cent) was from pigs killed in the UK, and 20,000 tonnes from imported pig meat. These figures bring the total production for 2008 to 184,000 tonnes, of which 108,000 tonnes (58.7 per cent) was from UK pigs.
• The UK imported 27,500 tonnes of pork in September 2008, the latest month for which the figures are reported. Of the total, the great majority (26,700 tonnes) came from other EU countries and just 800 tonnes for elsewhere. In the same month, 10,500 tonnes of pork was exported – 7,800 to the EU and 2,600 tonnes to other countries. For bacon and ham, all UK trade was with other EU countries, with 24,900 tonnes being imported and 4,400 tonnes exported during the month.
• The surveys of pig populations in the European Union – which take place in all countries in November and December – have not yet been published.

Further Reading

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February 2009