The latest data on the 2015 European pig census published by Eurostat show an increase of the Spanish pig census by 6.8% with respect to 2014 (+1.8 million animals), and with 28,367,340 heads it is the country in the EU with the highest census, beating Germany for the first time. On the other hand, the German pig census has decreased by 2.8% (some 800,000 animals), reaching 27,535,400 heads and placing second.
Regarding the rest of the main producing countries in the EU, France and Denmark, that place third and fourth respectively, basically keep their census the same as in 2014, whilst we underline an increase by 3.2% in The Netherlands, the fifth main producer.
Regarding the breeders' census, Spain is the only country, among the main producers, whose sow census has grown (by 108,500 heads, +4.6%), with a total of 2,466,270 animals. In the rest of the countries the census has lowered (-4% in Germany; -0.6% in Denmark; -4.8% in The Netherlands; and -2.3% in France). We must highlight the important drop in sow census in Poland, the sixth producer, by around 15% (some 140,000 sows less than in the same period in 2014).
More information in the Pig Production Statistics section.
22 February 2016/ 3tres3 editorial department, from data from Eurostat.
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat