According to final data from the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the number of pig farms declined by around 700 over the year. Compared with 2016, the number of holdings has fallen by approximately 41%.
The final census results were slightly lower than the preliminary estimates and confirmed the continuing structural change in the sector.
At the beginning of May, Germany had around 20.95 million pigs, 38,000 head, or 0.2%, more than a year earlier. Compared with 2016, however, the pig population has declined by around 23%.
As the number of farms is falling much faster than the number of animals, the average size of pig farms continues to increase. In 2016, the average farm kept around 1,100 pigs, while by 2026 this figure had risen to approximately 1,400 head.
Finishing Pig Numbers Remain Stable
The number of finishing pigs, including young pigs weighing less than 50 kg, remained virtually unchanged at 13.04 million head, 0.2% more than a year earlier.
Piglet numbers also increased by just 0.2% to 6.51 million head.
The breeding sow herd declined by 0.2% to around 1.39 million head.
At the same time, the number of farms keeping sows fell much more sharply, by 4.1%, or around 200 holdings, to 4,690 farms.
Compared with 2016, the number of farms with breeding sows has fallen by almost half, or approximately 48%.
Thus, Germany’s pig sector continues to move towards greater concentration of production: the overall pig population has recently stabilised, while the number of producers continues to decline rapidly.
PigUA.info, based on materials from Destatis