The largest EU pigmeat producers: Germany stagnates - Spain marches Over decades, Germany was the most productive region with the largest number of pigs. However, with the year 2016, Spain came in first place with more than 28 million pigs and 2.3 million sows. Germany comes to 27.7 million pigs and 1.91 million sows. Nevertheless, Germany remains the largest pigmeat producer with approx. 5.8 million tonnes compared with Spain with almost 4.5 million tonnes. There are two reasons for this: the slaughter numbers in Germany are 59 million, while in Spain almost 48 million slaughterings are counted.The slaughter weights in Spain are 84 kg compared to 95 kg in Germany. But Spain is on the rise. While the slaughter weights are only slowly increasing, the increase in the population continues as a whole in both the sows and the pigs . In Germany, on the other hand, pig numbers are declining. In the foreseeable future, Spain's pigmeat industry will be the front- runner in all sectors . The causes of the different developments are essentially the differently high costs of pig production . Despite high feed prices due to the high import requirements, the Spanish total costs per pig are the lowest in the European comparison.The main reason is the significantly lower building, wage and environmental costs in Spain. While in Germany high building and environmental requirements are expected in a densely populated country and a highly sensitized population, Spain has large areas with low population density and large areas for manure transfer . It is true that in the previous high-rises of the Spanish pig husbandry Aragon and Catalonia , 50% of the pigs' holdings is somewhat narrower, but the Castile-Leon expansion area, which is of the same size, still offers significant capacity reserves with a share of 13%. While the younger generation in Germany is rather small, the Spanish production shows sustained expansion tendencies .In view of the stagnating domestic consumption in Spain - despite seasonal tourist demand - exports are becoming the key factor. The self-sufficiency is 160%. But Spain has favorable conditions in the foreign trade business . The two deficit countries, Italy and Portugal, are located directly at the front door. Moreover, Spain maintains a good supply relationship with the importing country of the same language, Mexico , which is increasingly seeking to be a reliable second supplier on the Iberian peninsula due to political tensions with the USA. In the Asian third-country business with a focus on China, Spanish exporters are also taking part. The new agreement between the EU and Japan opens future sales opportunities.In contrast to Germany, Spain enjoys the decisive advantage of an expandable production area with low construction and environmental requirements . The growing export business offers sufficient sales opportunities on an international scale. Both regions are struggling with stagnating domestic demand.
