Pork market Germany
Pork production in Germany has experienced a considerable upturn in recent years. Production has increased from around 4 million tons to 5.5 million tons within 10 years. The increases have mainly taken place in the known concentration areas in the north-west of Germany. While fattening and slaughter capacities have been expanded accordingly, piglet production has not been able to keep pace. Today, around 11 million piglets are imported, mainly from Denmark and the Netherlands.
Domestic consumption is largely stagnating; per capita consumption is slowly declining. The result of the opposing development of production and consumption is an increase in exports to neighboring EU member states and third countries. Imports are being steadily pushed back, but remain at a considerable level because Germany's central location has become a hub for all kinds of specialty pork products. This also includes contract processing.
The fundamental driving force behind the growth of the German pork market is the eastward expansion of the EU. The new member states were not in a position to keep up with the competition from the West and reduced their own less productive pork production to a considerable extent. Poland, for example, was an exporter of pork to Russia before joining the EU. Today, Poland is a net importer. The quantities of pork that are exported are largely sourced from Germany. The Russian market is also a lucrative sales area for German pork, provided that deliveries are permitted.
German pork production has slowed in the past two years. The main reason for this was the low profitability due to the rise in feed prices, which could not be translated into correspondingly higher pig prices.
For the foreseeable future, it is assumed that German pork production has passed its peak. On the demand side, no further increases in sales on the domestic and third-country markets can be discerned; the opposite is more likely.
Increasing requirements for consumer, animal and environmental protection are making future investments more expensive, so that profit prospects are tending towards zero. Consolidation is the order of the day.
