According to estimates by the farmers’ union Unió de Pagesos, 60 ASF cases in wild boar have been confirmed in the outbreak area near Barcelona since late November. However, the virus has not been detected on any of the 57 pig farms located within a 20 km radius of the outbreak, despite extensive testing.
Nevertheless, the epizootic situation has already had significant consequences for the sector: movement restrictions have been imposed on 61,500 pigs, representing around 10% of the pig population in the province of Barcelona. Export pressure has also intensified, particularly for shipments to China, even with regionalisation mechanisms in place.
A further factor deepening the crisis has been the sharp drop in prices. Live pig prices at Mercolleida had already been declining before ASF was detected, but the fall accelerated after the outbreak: at the start of the year, the price dropped to €1/kg, compared with a peak of €1.815/kg in July.
Unió de Pagesos reports that total losses for Catalan pig farming reached €63 million by the end of 2025, while turnover in November–December fell by 17%. Sector representative Rossend Saltiveri stressed that producers cannot operate at a loss for an extended period, meaning the industry will be forced to restructure and reduce production in order to avoid prolonged financial damage.
In this context, the union is once again calling on the authorities to postpone the implementation of new animal welfare regulations scheduled for the coming months. Farmers had previously secured a one-year moratorium on these rules at the beginning of 2025, but the postponement is set to expire on March 9.
Farmers are also requesting a delay in the rollout of the mandatory digital tool ECOGAN, which is intended to be used for reporting pollution levels and greenhouse gas emissions on farms. The union argues that this creates an additional bureaucratic burden and proposes using it to replace existing regional registers to avoid duplicated reporting.
PigUA.info, based on materials from euromeatnews.com