Smaller decline in the number of slaughters than in 2022.
As shown by the ISN slaughterhouse ranking (interest group of pig breeders in Germany), in 2023, the consolidation process in the slaughterhouse industry continued. Despite a slight stabilization of the pig population recently, in 2023 and early 2024, further slaughterhouses were closed or slaughtering activities were limited. It can be seen that the two largest slaughterhouses, Tönnies and Westfleisch, are able to continue to increase their shares in the shrinking overall market.
According to ISN, approximately 43.9 million pigs were slaughtered in Germany in 2023. This is about 3.3 million, or 6.9 percent. less than in the previous year. This means that the downward trend in the number of slaughters continued, only in a slightly weaker form. In 2022, there was a decline of 9.2%. compared to the previous year.
There are large regional differences – especially in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, where together more than two thirds of all pig slaughter in Germany takes place. In Lower Saxony, approximately 13.4 million pigs were slaughtered in 2023, i.e. approximately 1.6 million fewer pigs compared to 2022 (-10.9%), while in North Rhine-Westphalia, where 16.3 million pigs, approximately 230,000 of them were slaughtered. This is more pigs than a year earlier (+1.4%).
More foreign pigs slaughtered in Germany
According to ISN's analysis, imports of slaughter pigs to Germany have increased significantly. In Germany, about 1.5 million pigs were slaughtered by 20.0%. more animals from neighboring countries. About 960,000 pieces came from the Netherlands – 21.6% more than last year. more than in the previous year. In 2023, Belgium delivered approximately 370,000 animals for slaughter. pigs, by 57.4 percent more than the previous year. In contrast, deliveries from Denmark dropped to approximately 110,000 slaughter pigs (-22.2%).
Overall, significantly more foreign pigs were slaughtered in German slaughterhouses last year, which may also be due to the significantly lower supply of live animals from German pig farms. However, import figures – such as before the coronavirus crisis and the slaughter of over 3 million pigs from neighboring countries – are a long way off, especially since the number of animals in the main supplier countries has also fallen significantly in the last three to four years.
The biggest ones lost less
According to the ISN ranking, the ten largest pig slaughterhouses slaughtered animals by 6.2% last year. fewer slaughters than in the previous year. In the case of other companies, the decline was even greater and amounted to 9.9%. As a result of this development, the 10 largest companies can now account for 82.5 percent. slaughter, which means an increase of 0.5%. compared to the previous year.
Tönnies remains the undisputed leader in the ranking of the largest pig slaughterhouses with 13.99 million slaughters. That's about 800,000 pigs fewer than the previous year, but at minus 5.4 percent, the number of pigs slaughtered at the industry leader fell less sharply than in the overall market. This meant that Tönnies was able to increase its market share to 31.9%. (+0.5%).
In second place is the cooperative company Westfleisch, which has largely managed to avoid the trend of a sharp decline in the overall market in 2023. Of the 6.5 million pigs, Westfleisch slaughtered almost the same number of animals as in the previous year and thus increased its market share from 13.8 to 14.8 percent.
Dutch slaughterhouse Vion with 12 percent. market share can still maintain third place in the ranking. Last year, the number of slaughters in Vion of 5.30 million recorded a significant decline again (-8.6%). Danish Crown, in fourth place, also recorded significantly lower slaughter numbers than in the previous year (-30.7%) with 2.1 million pigs. Müller Fleisch again takes fifth place in the ranking with 1.78 million slaughters, followed by Böseler Goldschmaus, Tummel, Steinemann, Manten and Simon-Fleisch.
