UK/EU Pig Statistics - June 2009
This article provides a summary of the latest statistics relating to pigs in the UK and Europe by ThePigSite editor, Jackie Linden.
1 July 2009
4 minute read
The data are updated approximately quarterly by the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and include slaughter figures for all EU countries as well as details of UK carcass weights, pig meat production and trade.
The latest data in the current quarterly report from DEFRA provides figures for the UK for May 2009 and for February 2009 for the EU.
UK/EU Slaughterings
UK slaughterings of clean pigs in May 2009 was 673,700 – up 1,100 from the same month in 2008.
UK slaughterings for sows and boars in May 2009 was 15,000, which compares with 16,600 in May 2008.
The latest month for which data is available for EU pig slaughterings is February 2009, when the total for all 27 Member States came to 19.055 million. This brought the total number of pigs slaughtered in the EU-27 for the first two months of the year to just under 39.8 million.
| Total pigs slaughtered in the EU (thousand head) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | 2008 total | Jan 2009 | Feb 2009 |
| Belgium | 11,157 | 943 | 867 |
| Bulgaria | 993 | 36 | 37 |
| Czech Republic | 3,804 | 274 | 259 |
| Denmark | 20,790 | 1,855 | 1,548 |
| Germany | 54,848 | 4,816 | 4,335 |
| Estonia | 496 | 33 | 34 |
| Ireland | 2,578 | 214 | 188 |
| Greece | 1,913 | 183 | 144 |
| Spain | 41,306 | 3,570 | 3,488 |
| France | 25,735 | 2,169 | 1,968 |
| Italy | 13,616 | 1,099 | 1,019 |
| Cyprus | 725 | 59 | 58 |
| Latvia | 524 | 29 | 30 |
| Lithuania | 937 | 55 | 46 |
| Luxembourg | 150 | 11 | 9 |
| Hungary | 4,994 | 332 | 328 |
| Malta | 102 | 7 | 7 |
| Netherlands | 14,505 | 1,157 | 1,047 |
| Austria | 5,553 | 462 | 422 |
| Poland | 22,321 | 1,445 | 1,393 |
| Portugal | 5,976 | 459 | 433 |
| Romania | 5,660 | 163 | 182 |
| Slovenia | 381 | 25 | 23 |
| Slovakia | 1,084 | 62 | 62 |
| Finland | 2,459 | 192 | 193 |
| Sweden | 3,073 | 254 | 246 |
| United Kingdom | 9,427 | 835 | 690 |
| EU-27 | 255,107 | 20,739 | 19,055 |
UK Carcass Weights
The average UK-killed and dressed carcass weight in May 2009 was 77.7 kg, 1.1 kg more than the 2008 average.
The average dressed carcass weight for UK-killed sows and boars was 149.1 kg, somewhat below the 151.3 kg average for 2008.
UK Pig Meat Production
Total pig meat production in the UK in March 2009 was 55,000 tonnes, of which 46,000 tonnes was pork and 8,000 tonnes was bacon and ham.
These figures bring the totals for the year to May to 300,000, 255,000 and 44,000 tonnes, respectively.
UK Home-Cured Bacon and Ham Production
For the first quarter of 2009, total home-cured ham and bacon production amounted to 43,000 tonnes. Of this, 23,000 tonnes (53 per cent) was produced from pigs slaughtered in the UK, and the rest from imported pig meat. This continues a generally downward trend in the proportion of UK-reared pigs for cured meat production in the UK.
UK Trade in Pork, Bacon and Ham
The latest data available for UK trade in pig meat is for March 2009, when 34,400 tonnes of pork was imported into the country – all from other EU countries.
In the same month, 8,200 tonnes of pork was exported from the UK – 5,600 to the EU and 2,600 to other countries.
All bacon and ham trade in the same month was with other EU countries: 26,300 tonnes were imported and 1,800 tonnes exported.
Further Reading
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- | You can view the full report by clicking here. |
Further Reading
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- | You can view information on the pig population in the UK and the EU by clicking here. |
June 2009
