Meat production in Germany: past are the days of high growth
The meat production in Germany has established something above the 8 million tonnes mark in five years at a level. The high growth rates of previous years have found a temporary end.
In beef production , a steady decline can be observed for a decade. Higher milk yields per cow reduce the need for increasing numbers of cow. Fewer cows mean less calves that can be mounted to the mast. Despite the lifting of the quota, the cow numbers have fallen further. The pure meat cattle production plays a minor role in Germany. The largest proportion of beef comes from the bull and bull slaughter with about 0.55 million tons of the total 1.1 million tonnes of beef and veal production. A decline is expected for the year 2016.
With a share of two thirds the pork production is the most important meat sector in Germany. The rapid increase of production to be observed before 2010 has stabilised in recent years to a level of 5.5 million tonnes. In 2015, the growth was only 0.8%.
Slaughtered in 2015 approximately 55 million pigs have been Germany . Pigmeat production mainly concentrates on the States of North Rhine-Westphalia (1.9 million tons) and Lower Saxony (1.8 million tonnes), which together produced 66.2% of the pork. The pig slaughter of foreign origin have declined. A fall in production is expected for the year 2016.
The poultry meat industryrecorded high growth rates in the last decade. Total production from chickens, turkeys, hens and ducks have risen from 2005 with just over 1 million tons to nearly 1.6 million tonnes in 2015. About 1 million tonnes of chicken meat and just under 0.5 million tonnes of Turkey meat are the main suppliers. However recorded a decrease of 0.3% in the German poultry meat sector the year 2015. The prospects for the year 2016 look not much better.
The socio-political frameworks promise little positive prospects for the German sector in the future.
