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According to preliminary data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), as of November 3, 2023, Germany's swine herd stood at 21.2 million head, an increase of 1.3% or 266,000 head compared to May 3, 2023. This is the first increase in inventory since November 2020. However, compared to November 2022, the herd was down slightly by 0.7% or 150,600 head, and compared to November 2021 it was down 10.7% or 2.5 million head.
By category, as of November 3, 2023, there were 9.6 million finishing pigs in Germany, down 1.1% or 103,800 head compared to six months earlier. In contrast, the number of piglets and young pigs increased by 3.7% or 365,100 head to 10.2 million.
Compared to May 2023, the number of breeding sows remained almost constant at 1.4 million head. However, differences can be observed between the federal states. While the number of breeding sows increased in some states, such as North Rhine-Westphalia (+20,000 head) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (+6,400 head), it decreased in others, such as Lower Saxony (-11,300 head) and Bavaria (-8,000 head).
As of November 3, 2023, the number of swine farms was 16,200 and thus remained virtually unchanged compared to May 2023, although down 4.5% (-800 farms) and 14.2% (-2,700 farms) compared to November 2022 and 2021, respectively. In a ten-year comparative, the downward trend in the number of pigs and farms is even clearer: the number of pigs has fallen by 24.6% or 6.9 million head since 2013, while the number of farms has dropped by as much as 42.1% (-11,800 farms). Thus, the trend towards larger pig farms continues, with the average in 2013 being 1,000 head per farm and ten years later 1,300 head per farm.
December 20, 2023/ Destatis/ Germany.
https://www.destatis.de/
