Dear readers,
Some good pig industry news:
- Why is Spain the leader of the European pig industry? Pork has become the most consumed meat in Spanish households, representing 42% of all meat purchased by families. Total consumption of fresh meat and processed pork products in Spain has reached 817,000 tons, exceeding 807,600 tons in 2023. Spending on fresh meat and processed pork products has reached 7.707 billion euros, which represents more than 47% of total spending on meat and meat products and 9.2% of total spending on food and beverages in Spain.
- The Spanish Union of Farmers and Livestock Farmers’ Unions has asked the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) to ensure that the application of the new Royal Decree on animal welfare for the pig sector does not entail a reduction in its productive capacity.
- Representatives from the US states of Montana, Utah and Wyoming are this week considering bills that would regulate sales and nomenclature around alt-protein products in their states, joining initiatives from Indiana, Georgia, Oklahoma and South Carolina. year South Dakota, Arkansas and Florida have already passed laws restricting cultivated meat.
- The EGZH of Germany and the Swiss SUISAG step into a merger. Both have been working together successfully for over ten years on the Edelschwein and Piétrain breeds and share a similar basic philosophy. “This merger will create a strong breeding company in farmer’s hands in the near future that can compete with the large international corporations,” according to Leo Müller, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SUISAG.
- The Dutch pig market has unexpectedly started moving this week, after Van Rooi Meat raised its price with 4 cents. Some slaughterhouses followed immediately, others did not. After Vion pulled out from Germany, Van Rooi seems to emerge as the leader of the pig industry of the Netherlands
Events calendar:
- The Shanghai International Frozen and Chilled Food Exhibition, SIFCE, is a renowned international trade fair for frozen and chilled products. The fair takes place annually at the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC) in Shanghai, This year the SIFCE takes place on 3 days from Wednesday, 26.02.2025 to Friday, 28.02.2025.
- ScotHot is Scotland’s premier trade fair for food, beverages, hospitality, and tourism. Held every two years at the SEC Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow, The ScotHot will take place on 2 days from Wednesday, 26. February to Thursday, 27. February 2025.
Madness
We have to continue to watch and talk about politics.
One of the most notable changes of the Spanish animal welfare regulations, which will come into force on 8 March, is the increase in the minimum free floor area available for pigs, which implies an increase in space of 14% on average and the obligation to allocate 2.5% of the surface area to observation and isolation. The agricultural organization warns that the regulations, , impose more severe restrictions than those established by the current European regulations, which could seriously affect livestock farms, decreasing the capacity of the pig farms.
The political event of this week was, without doubt, the federal parliamentary election in Germany. The results are confirming the decreasing popularity of the socialists and the greens, with increasing options for the far right and far left parties. While most of the people expected a change, it may be that we will see again a “street light” coalition. Nevertheless, the winner CDU is stating that the greens are blocking the economic development of Germany. This statement is surely supported by the farmers. For sure, the greens also influenced the German heavy industry, by forbidding the use of nuclear energy. All 17 nuclear plants are closed and Germany is pushed to use less productive and more expensive resources which, by the way, are also polluting.
The American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP), which represents more than 1,600 small and medium sized meat processors, is encouraging its members to contact Congress members to urge the release of federal grant funding frozen by the Trump administration so that processors can continue improvement projects already underway. “Companies that were awarded grants in 2023-24 but not given their money are finding themselves in the middle of expansions and equipment purchases without a way to move forward”
Local ranchers in Nebraska confronted USDA staffing cuts to an influential research center. The cuts, which are believed to be part of the USDA’s collaboration with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), affected the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Clay Center, Nebraska, which houses more than 25,000, is the largest of its kind in the world.
Bird flu outbreaks are estimated to have reduced the U.S. poultry population by more than 147 million since 2022. While the US faces a huge crisis in the egg supply, the USDA has admitted that it is struggling to recall employees assisting with the government’s response to the H5N1 outbreak after they were “accidentally” fired.
This is not politics, this is madness.
