Dear readers,
I am frequently asked: what could we do to improve the situation of the pig industry? We should learn from the best! In the last years Spain turned into the pig industry market leader of Europe. Some recent examples of why this is happening:
- The Regional Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development of the Andalusia regional government will expand the call for grants to extensive livestock farming by another €22 million for 2026 and 2027. This measure, financed with EAFRD funds, will follow on from the first call published in 2021 for €70 million, of which the final annual payment of €10 million will be made in 2025.
- The Benito Jiménez business group has acquired 100% of Embutidos Solà, a Catalan manufacturer specializing in cured sausages with over 200 years of history, with an annual turnover of €20 million. The company also purchased the La Higuera company, located in San Pedro Manrique (Soria), which specializes in the production of hams, loins, chorizos, and torreznos snacks. The company has a turnover of nearly €50 million and a workforce of 124.
- The Gran Canaria Island Council in improving is investing €2 million the facilities of the island’s slaughterhouse. Among the works completed are the resurfacing of areas of the slaughterhouse, the construction of a water tank, the adaptation of land and facilities for a future photovoltaic plant.
Events calendar:
- The HKTDC Food Expo PRO in Hong Kong is a leading trade fair that focuses on the latest trends and technologies in the food industry. Organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the event takes place at the world-renowned Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on 3 days, from Thursday, 14. August to Saturday, 16. August 2025.
Conspiracy
The European Commission reported 101 new ASF outbreaks among domestic animals in nine countries in the last two weeks, bringing the total number of cases to 405. The highest number of outbreaks was recorded in:
- Romania — 228
- Serbia — 73
- Moldova — 37
In the last twenty years of my professional activity I spent a lot of time in this countries and this report is not surprising me.
While the professional pig farming has improved substantially in this period, especially in Romania, this countries are linked by another characteristic of the pig breeding: the high number of backyard pigs.
I do not trust any official number of the pigs kept in the backyards. The population of this countries does not trust authorities, generally, and the backyard pigs often constitute not only a food resource, but also an alternative income.
Another common thing, when you reed the social media: no one is believing in the existence of the African Swine Fever(ASF). It is considered to be a conspiracy because it is “only happening in our country” and the scope is to “destroy the national pig industry and fill the shelves of the supermarkets with imported pork, of low quality, injected “. Who cares that not the backyard pig that is filling the shelves with pork? Who cares that the local players of industrial level do not question the existence of the disease?
This period of the year is perfect for the narrative described above. Harvesting has started and will continue for a few weeks more. It is known that the wild boar population, also quite dense in the region, develops a certain kind of resistance to the ASF. They will not die anymore in large numbers, becoming natural reservoirs of the virus instead. In the harvesting period the tractors and other machineries put them on the move, while the grains remain often infested. The industrial players know this, they are using designated machinery for the harvesting, disinfecting the tools and giving a resting time for the newly harvested grains. The backyard farmer is using the same tractor for all his needs and, especially when the grains on the local market are scarce and expensive, using the harvested grains immediately to feed their pigs. So it starts a new cycle of “conspiracy”
