Dear readers,
Some positive developments from our industry:
- Premium Brands Holdings Corporation, a producer, marketer and distributor of branded specialty food products, acquired U.S. processor Stampede Culinary Partners, the largest capacity of sous vide meats in North America.
- In the Netherlands, Van Loon Group is being acquired by Van Rooi Meat. Both companies will continue to operate under their own banners. The deal is still subject to approval by the competition authority. Van Rooi Meat reported a turnover of €990 million in 2024. Van Loon Group’s turnover rose to €1.12 billion in the same year. Van Rooi has 2,400 employees on its payroll, while Van Loon Group has 2,500. According to a statement: “At Van Rooi, we took the initiative to acquire the Van Loon Group’s operations,” Marc and Addy Van Rooi. They also say the acquisition will boost the next generation of Van Rooi, who are already active within the company. Both companies share the vision of acting as supply chain managers to ensure high-quality and affordable food. Erik van Loon states that there is no successor within the family
- The Danish Crown meat company is increasing its pork slaughter rate and will expand the workforce at its Vejen processing plant to produce even more meat within Denmark. The plan is to debone 60,000 pork forequarters each week in part of the approximately 14,000-square-meter buildings that Danish Crown acquired in 2023.
Events Calendar:
- The Nepal Poultry & Livestock International Expo is a leading trade fair for the poultry and livestock industry in Nepal. It takes place at the Chitwan Expo Center in Bharatpur on 3 days from Friday, 16. January to Sunday, 18. January 2026.
Emotion
While the meat division of Danish Crown is optimistic, new legislation came into force in Denmark, prohibiting the conventional rearing of sows and allowing only short-term fixation in farrowing pens during the period after farrowing, when the risk of piglets being crushed is greatest. The size of the pen has been set at a minimum of 6.5 square meters, with at least 3 meters being a solid or drained area. The rules take effect immediately for new buildings. For existing buildings, a transition period of 15 years has been set. How will it affect the legendary large number of piglets of the Danish genetics? We will see.
The market has the classic behavior for the years with winter holidays in the middle of the week: pigs are clogging, due to reduced slaughter week; a bit higher weights; good occasion for the slaughterhouses to reduce the quotations. Weather conditions are also complicating the supply of livestock and meats. But we have seen-and survived- periods like this before.
I am more concerned about the increasing occurrence of animal diseases that have been considered eradicated before. We had a Foot and Mouth Disease(FMD) episode last year in Germany, followed by a much stronger outbreak in Hungary and Slovakia. The effect of such events has been proven to be much stronger than expected on the pork trade in the mentioned countries.
The end of the year bought the African Swine Fever in the place that can do the most damage for the European pork market: Spain! While it seems that the authorities managed to control the outbreak, we get worrying information from Vietnam: the CEO of a company has been arrested, after discovering the fact that over 130 tons of ASF contaminated pork has been used in production. How can we protect the pig industry with such irresponsible operators in the market?
A new concern: Hungary’s largest piglet producer is affected by Aujeszky disease, considered to be eradicated decades ago!
I left for the last lines the subject of the EU-Mercosur agreement. I got messages and calls from some of you during the weekend: what is my opinion on the subject? I red a lot on the subject. For now, I mostly find what the social media and the recent COVID crisis determined: the approach on the subject is largely bipartisan. Even more: the strongest voices are the ones of people who have opinions on everything, while they are qualified for nothing.
My answer: it is to soon to have a radical opinion on the effect of the agreement on our business. When analyzing the impact of the largest trade deal ever done by the EU, we should be driven by data, not by emotion!
