Dear readers,
We start, as usual, with some god things happening in the pig industry:
- The USDA revealed a funding opportunity of as much as $50 million to assist states in initiating or enhancing their meat and poultry inspection programs .This initiative intends to boost processing choices available to livestock farmers and smaller processing entities .Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins introduced the Stand-Up Program, which will aid states in managing initial expenses related to establishing inspection programs in collaboration with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service .This initiative stems from an executive order that instructed USDA to broaden market accessibility for American meat producers.
- Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food has declared an allocation of up to $3.8 million for Canada Pork, via the AgriMarketing Program as part of the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership .This funding aims to enhance market access and raise consumer awareness while fostering the growth of the Canadian pork industry. With this investment, Canada Pork intends to market Canadian pork in both new and developing regions in Asia, Europe, and the Americas .By participating in significant trade exhibitions, coordinating trade missions, and arranging business discussions, the initiative will assist Canadian exporters in forming direct connections with international clients, tapping into new customer bases, and boosting export sales to aid in Canada’s economic development. In 2025, the value of Canadian pork and pork product exports amounted to $5.7 billion .Roughly 65% of Canada’s pork output is exported to around 76 nations each year .The leading five markets for Canadian pork products in 2025: United States, Japan, Mexico, China, and South Korea .Collectively, these nations represented more than 83% of the export volume .
- Paraguay’s National Service for Animal Health and Quality (Senacsa) has made some changes to Resolution No. 905/2025, which imposes a temporary restriction on bringing in live pigs, pork, and various pork products and byproducts from Spain. The changes create allowances for specific items deemed secure against African swine fever (ASF), following the guidance of the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) Terrestrial Animal Health Code.
- Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is putting funds into the establishment of a pair of new slaughterhouses .In the northeast part of this German state, a dedicated facility for poultry slaughtering will be constructed .Additionally, a new site is being allocated for the slaughter of pigs, cattle, sheep, and game. The Agriculture Minister for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, expressed that immediate action is essential .Currently, there is a lack of pig slaughterhouses in that northeastern area, yet he believes that the production of meat is important .Consequently, the proposed regional slaughterhouse represents a tangible step towards sustaining the pig farming sector. While at the MeLa agricultural exhibition in the Rostock area, the Minister commented, “If we wish to maintain livestock farming, it is crucial to have the ability to process slaughter animals…Neglecting rural areas poses a threat to our democracy.”
Events calendar:
- The Tallinn FoodFair (TFF) stands as an international expo, serving as a vital hub for trade opportunities in the food industry in Estonia. The TFF will take place on 2 days from Wednesday, 23. September to Thursday, 24. September 2026at the Tallinn Unibet Arena.
- The Expoalimentaria in Lima is a trade fair for the food, beverage, and gastronomy sectors in Peru. The fair will take place on 3 days from Wednesday, 23. September to Friday, 25. September 2026.
- The POLAGRA Fair, a leading annual event in the food industry, takes place at the Poznan International Fair Grounds in Poznań, Poland. The POLAGRA will take place on 3 days from Wednesday, 23. September to Friday, 25. September 2026.
Good Enough
Is hard to make a decent comment on what is happening now in our industry in Europe.
We often post news related to the state support for promoting pork on foreign markets, like the above mentioned Canadian one. Meanwhile, we rarely see same support in Europe, except some Spanish programs, maybe. Even it is understandable that the largest exporter has to do this, we should also see another perspective. It is true that Spain has/had the advantages of export to the Asian markets until African swine fever(ASF) hit Barcelona area. But is also true, that the reduced export opportunities hit al the EU pork producers. Same thing happened, when Germany got hit by ASF. As long as all EU states are hit by the consequences, we would expect some measures:
- A clearer and efficient measure for fighting ASF on the EU level, because the actual ones are not working.
- EU level support for accessing export markets. Even some member states will never benefit directly from this, the lack of pork export opportunities affect the whole EU market.
- Unified EU procedure and financing for voluntary ceasing pig farming, resulting in reduced overproduction.
The slaughterhouse building initiative in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is making sense, but the extremist AfD party secured a victory in the state elections yesterday, the CDU(the party of Chancellor Mertz) suffered a total defeat, plummeting to an alarming low of 4.9%, thereby putting itself at risk of failing to reach the electoral threshold needed to enter the regional parliament. Will the initiative still get the parliamentary support? And this not the first blow the traditional political parties in the German local elections. What could change in the German agricultural policy with the extremist parties coming to power?
For now, the German political environment isolated this parties and their percentage of votes in not enough to govern alone, but is this good enough?
