Having been in line with 2020 in the third quarter of 2021, EU pig slaughter was also relatively stable in October. At 20.6 million head, slaughter was similar to much of 2021 and less than 3% lower than in October the year before. This small decline will have been influenced by fewer working days in the calendar month this year, with an additional Sunday when compared to October in 2020. A general undercurrent of ongoing ample supplies was reflected by the falling prices across most of Europe at the time.
Looking at individual member states, there was a noticeable 5% year-on-year decline in slaughter in Germany and the Netherlands was also down by 8%. However, Denmark continued to record higher throughputs.
Despite more stable figures in more recent months, slaughter across the first ten months of 2021 overall was still 2% higher than the previous year, at 206 million head.
