Dear readers,
Lets start with some good news from the swine industry:
- The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee voted to ban meat-related terms on plant-based products. The European Parliament will decide later this year when this ban will come into effect. The European Parliament had already voted on the proposal in 2020, but the then-controversial proposal was rejected.
- The Perry, Iowa, City Council has approved a $10 million rebate of future increased tax revenues for meat giant JBS USA to build a new $135 million sausage plant that is planned to break ground later this year and possibly begin production before the end of 2026. The plant would employ about 250 people in one shift, potentially doubled to a second shift, processing 500,000 sows for 60,000 tons of raw sausage.
- U.S. Seaboard Foods has acquired three farms in Texas and Oklahoma to strengthen the supply chain for its pork processing plant in Guymon, Oklahoma. The new sites, located in Perryton, Texas, and Optima and Balko, Oklahoma, add 57,000 market hog spaces to the company’s operations.
Events calendar:
- Inter Standard Consult (Uzbekistan) in partnership with APK-Inform Asia (Kazakhstan) and Expo Time (Kazakhstan) invites you to participate in the Asia Grains & Oils Conference in Tashkent, at the Azimuth Grand Hotel, between 17-18 of September 2025.
- The ILDEX Indonesia is a leading trade fair for the livestock, dairy processing, meat processing, and aquaculture industries in Southeast Asia. The event takes place every two years at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) BSD City in Tangerang on 3 days from Wednesday, 17.09.2025 to Friday, 19.09.2025.
- The China International Food & Catering Expo is a renowned trade fair for the entire value chain of the food and hospitality industry. Held at the Changsha International Convention and Exhibition Center, the fair takes place on 3 days from Friday, 19.09.2025 to Sunday, 21.09.2025.
House of Cards
Some markets already react to the Chinese tariffs on pork. As usual, the “solution“ is to reduce the purchasing price of the pigs.
China is a major buyer of European pork. The EU exports approximately 13% of its pork outside the EU annually, about 26% of this pork went to China. China imported $22.76 billion worth of meat in 2024. Brazil is the largest exporter, accounting for 37% of the total, followed by the United States (11%) and Australia (10%). EU countries are representing relatively small percentages, the first European country is Spain, accounting for 5%. E.U. Exports in 2024 totaled 1.4 million tons, with an export value of €2 billion. A simple calculation gives an average price of 1,43 €/kg…not to much meat in that containers!
We already got news from Germany last Wednesday related to the pressure of the slaughterhouses to reduce the pig purchase price. The farmers did not accept it, since Germany has not exported any pork to China in the last years.
On the other hand, German farmers are concerned by February 9, 2026, the next deadline for piglet producers to implement the changes to the Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Husbandry Ordinance. They must submit a building permit application to the responsible licensing authority by this date. All farms that have not submitted the relevant applications implemented them by this date will then be required to cease their sow husbandry, which no longer complies with the law. The requirements must be implemented by 2029 :all sows must be housed in groups from now on, restraint of sows during this period will only be possible for a short time for insemination, possible treatment, or pregnancy monitoring. Each sow must be provided with a usable area of 5 m² from weaning to mating. According to the regulation, sows must also be provided with sufficient retreat areas, for example, through screens, cubicles, and other built-in facilities. Insemination pens or other feeding areas do not constitute the sole means of retreat within the meaning of the law.
In order to make things more complicated, the special funding for the restructuring of pig farms of the former “traffic light” government will be ceased, according to the new Agriculture Minister of Germany. Similar founding reductions are expected in the Netherlands.
For me, the German pig industry looks like a house of cards.
