The topic of "pig skyscrapers" in China returns in the media like a boomerang. Some are delighted with the advancement of Chinese technical thought. However, we hear more often voices criticizing such solutions for the low level of welfare, and above all for the negative impact on the environment. Today, the trends in the European Union are completely the opposite: not only is there no talk of building multi-story complexes (and this is, after all, a good direction), but it is increasingly difficult to obtain building permits for traditional buildings (which is definitely not a good thing). Nevertheless, in Europe we still have relics of the old era, when multi-story pig farms were also built on our continent. Not so long ago, we wrote about the end of production in this type of facility in the former GDR.
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Europe's only pig skyscraper loses occupancy permit
It turns out, however, that in Europe, and in the European Union, there is probably still the last pig skyscraper on the Old Continent. What's more, it is responsible for several dozen percent of domestic pork production.
Post-Soviet behemoth
The last operational "pig skyscraper" in Europe is located in Vijlandji in southern Estonia. The six-story facility was built long before the collapse of the USSR (in the 1970s), and its main purpose was to supply pork to residents of the Leningrad Oblast. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was taken over by the Finnish company EKSEKO and was significantly modernized and expanded at that time.
40 percent of the pig population in one hand
Currently, the plant produces 280,000 piglets per year, and fattens about 50,000 pigs. Surplus piglets go to farms cooperating with the concern as part of out-feeding.
Such a large scale of production in such a small country as Estonia means that around 40% of the country's pig population is in one hand. The combine is not only the largest pig producer in Estonia, but also in all the Baltic countries,
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World Bank under fire. All because of financing of "pig skyscrapers" in China
Source: Agrarheute
