Netherlands exported more piglets and finishers
Over the year 2009, almost 1 million additional piglets have been exported in comparison to 2008. Exports of finishers grew by 375,000 year-on-year.
These provisional figures were made public by the Dutch Product Board for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE).
Piglet exports
In total, piglet exports in 2009 grew by 18.5%. In the year 2008 a total of 5.15 million piglets were transported abroad; one year later this went up to 6.1 million piglets. Approximately half of this amount went to Germany, 14% to Poland and 12% to Belgium. The market share for Germany and Poland grew 1% and 4% respectively.
Other markets with growth potential were Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Finishers
As for finisher pigs, the growth percentage in 2009 was 8.7%. In 2009, a total of 4.7 million finisher pigs were exported; one year eariler this was 4.3 million. Last year, 76.5% of the finishers went to Germany, 10% to Hungary and 6.8% to Poland.
Export data also tell that about 45% of the animals produced in the Netherlands will travel abroad either as a piglet or as a finisher.
Domestic production
Last week, PVE published data on the gross domestic production of finishers in the Netherlands. These also went up, by 4.4%.
This figure is the number of domestic slaughterings plus live exports minus live imports. The number of slaughterings decreased by 1.7%, but the live imports increased 11% and the live exports increased 14.1%. Average slaughterweight (dw) in the Netherlands increased in 2009 to 92.3 kg.
In tonnes, the gross domestic production grew 3.2%. In absolute figures, the gross production grew from 1.75 million tonnes to 1.80 million tonnes. Meat consumption in total grew from 669,000 tonnes to 688,000 tonnes – a 2.9% increase. Use per head grew from 40.7 to 41.8 kg.
Taking population growth and meat consumption into account, the PVE concluded that the Netherlands reached a self-sufficiency rate of 263%, which is 1% more than in 2008.
Related website:
• Dutch Product Board for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE)
Join 18,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the pigsector, three times a week.
