Pigs

That is an average of around 1,264 pigs per farm. In 1950, there were still just under 2.4 million pig farmers in Germany, but they kept less than half as many pigs, namely around 12 million. At that time, there was an average of five pigs per farmer.

Pig farming in Germany is mainly concentrated in three federal states: around 33% of all German pigs were kept in Lower Saxony in 2021, around 26% in North Rhine-Westphalia and around 12% in Bavaria.

The export figures show the particular importance of pork for the German agricultural industry. Germany is a major exporter of pork: around 2.3 million tons were exported in 2021. That is almost six times as much as beef and more than three times as much as poultry meat.