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The Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Ms. Isabel García Tejerina, has highlighted how “foreign trade has constituted one of the main pillars of the economic recovery, contributing decisively to the total Spanish trade balance”.
Ms. Isabel García Tejerina presented the Annual Directory “Food Production in Spain in 2014”, produced by MERCASA with the data of 2013.
Pig sector
According to the data published in the Annual Directory, the meat-stockbreeding subsector represented 27.6% of the Final Agricultural Production and about 75% of the Final Production generated by all the animal sector in Spain, so we can deduce its importance, which is higher than that of other animal products such as milk or eggs. At the European level, the meat sector represented some 60% of the Animal Production and 25% of the Agricultural Production in 2013.
Swine is the main stockbreeding sector in Spain, and it grows year after year. In 2013, the pig sector contributed 39.4% to the Final Stockbreding Production and 14.2% tot the Final Agricultural Production: practically the same percentage than in 2012. Expressed in current money, the value reached by the pig sector in 2013 was €6,272.9 million (basic prices): 11.7% more than in 2012, a year in which the value generated by this sector had grown too.
Meat production (amount) dropped by 1%, and the prices rose by 8.6%. These two facts favoured a rise by 7% in the final value generated by this sector so as to calculate the agricultural income. Nevertheless, in 2013 the number of pig farms fell again. When 2013 ended there were 85,459 pig farms (2.3% less than in 2012). The majority of these farms (more tan 68,000) were intensive pig farms, whilst the rest were mixed production (intensive/extensive) or extensive farms. When 2013 ended, the pig census for meat production neared 25.6 million heads (1% more than in 2012, when the census decreased in the same proportion). From this total census, 10.6 million were fattening pigs and 7.1 million were piglets. In terms of the number of farms, in 2013, Galicia (31.8%), Andalusia (14.4%) and Extremadura (15.7%) stood out once again; whilst regarding the number of heads on the farms, Catalonia (more than 6 million animals), Aragon, Castile and Leon, and Castile-La Mancha stood out.
On the other hand, the number of slaughtered animals in 2013 added up 41.4 million heads (1% less than in 2012), with a production of 3,439,500 tonnes of pork, a volume slightly lower than in 2012.
Pork production pools in Catalonia (43.7%), Castile and Leon (12%), Castile-La Mancha (9.2%) and Andalusia (9%). We must highlight that whilst Castille and Leon fell in the ranking of the pork producing regions, Catalonia rose.
Regarding prices, the average prices of class E pigs were €139.18/100 kg versus more than €137/100 kg in 2012.
Regarding foreign trade, the total Spanish pork exports reached 1.3 million tonnes versus 1.4 million tonnes in 2012. The majority of the sales were to EU countries (more than a milion tonnes exported). With respect to imports, a total of 216.424 tonnes entered the Spanish market, whilst in 2012 slightly more than 182,000 tonnes were purchased. The UE was the most important supplier. Apart from white-coated pigs, Spain also has an important Iberian pig production. In 2013, the Iberian pig census neared 1.9 million heads, quite lower than in 2012. Once more, Castile and Leon was the region with the highest Iberian pig census (753,000 heads), and it also lead the sales of cured hams and forelegs.
Tuesday, 25 November 2014.
MAGRAMA/ Spain. http://www.magrama.gob.es
Mercasa/ España. http://www.mercasa-ediciones.es
