The Netherlands expects another drop in pig numbers in 2025
The Netherlands’ pig inventory is expected to decrease again in 2025. According to data by breeding organisation Topigs Norsvin, the Netherlands currently has 670,000 active sows – but this amount is expected to drop to 620,000 to 630,000 towards the end of the year.
In 2024, the number of active sows already dropped from 730,000 to 670,000. Main reason behind the decrease are national regulations to encourage the termination of livestock production organisations. Hundreds of pig farms closed down causing the number of sows to drop by 100,000 in about 2 years. Several other farms have decided to stop without participating in one of the termination schemes.
National Termination Regulation for Animal Husbandry Locations
In 2024, in total 567 pig farms opted to participate in the so-called “National Termination Regulation for Animal Husbandry Locations” – the abbreviation in Dutch being Lbv. Of that amount, in total 552 met all requirements and 374 even had already signed and sent in agreements to terminate – about 67%. That amount is likely to increase.
Reducing nitrogen emissions
The Lbv was put in place to help the Netherlands meet its goal to reduce nitrogen emissions. For a few years, the Netherlands has failed to meet European criteria to lower its nitrogen emissions. Under European law, the country has to protect areas of natural interest. When nitrogen emission levels are considered too high, biodiversity might be at stake as some vegetation grows well whereas others may disappear as a result of that.
2 different termination schemes
Within 5 years, the Netherlands’ pig industry thus had 2 different termination schemes. After all, in 2019, the country introduced the “Subsidy Regulation to Reconstruct the Pig Industry”, a regulation abbreviated as Srv at the time. That scheme persuaded 278 pig farms to stop – leading to about a 7% reduction of the total pig inventory.
The current Lbv regulation is expected to achieve double that amount. Topigs Norsvin estimated the total amount of sows to have been 887,000 late 2018 – which means that in 5 years there has been a reduction of 250,000 sows.
Balance is shifting
It is not only the size of the Netherlands’ pig industry that is changing – also the balance is shifting. Marco Hol is pig production consultant at DLV Advies. He predicts that 15% of the sow capacity will disappear and 8% of finisher pig capacity. It is therefore expected that the need to export weaner pigs will decrease.
About 80% of the current amount of pig producers, however, intends to continue producing pigs. For those staying in the market, a reduction of the pig inventory isn’t always bad news. After all, slaughterhouses and processors will need to keep the slaughterlines going. Internationally, the decrease has barely an influence, as the decrease has hardly any impact on total EU production figures. Late 2024, Rabobank wrote that pig production in the whole of the European Union plus the UK has remained stable, perhaps only a minor decrease by 0.5%.
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