It’s fair to say the Germans like their meat, and that’s proven by an average consumption rate of 54.9kg per capita in 2025, 1.4kg higher than the previous year.
Pork is by far the most popular meat in Germany, accounting for more than 52% of consumers’ total meat intake, about 28.5kg per capita.
However, even as pigmeat production rose by 1.1% in 2025, some consumer groups are now forecasting that average intakes are likely to fall in the next five years.
Looking at the bigger picture, although Germany was once the powerhouse of EU pigmeat production, its dominance has slid in recent years, mainly as a result of its shock African swine fever (ASF) outbreak.
The northern European country now sits behind Spain in the EU pigmeat pig production rankings, and just ahead of France, Denmark and the Netherlands.
German pig industry in summary
- Total pigs: 21.5m
- Fattening and young pigs: 13.5m
- Top pig location: Lower Saxony
- Number of pig housing places: 30m
- Housing type: Typically slatted floors
- Average number of pigs per farm: 810
- Organic pig herd: 245,000
National herd
Figures from November 2025 showed there were 21.5 million pigs across the whole country – given the German population of about 84 million people, that means there are about four people for every pig in the country.
Pig farms can be found all over Germany, but the most intensive regions for pork production are in Lower Saxony, with 7.2 million animals, and North Rhine-Westphalia with 5.9 million pigs.
Taking a closer look, fattening pigs and young pigs made up the largest share, at 13.5 million animals. The German breeding herd totalled about 3 million head last year.
Germany’s national pig herd numbers have been stable since 2022 – in fact, last year’s figure was slightly up on 2022-24. However, pig numbers plummeted by 4.7 million head (18%) to 21.3 million in 2022 in the space of two years since 2020, the year ASF was first detected.
Between 2013 and 2023, the number of pig farms contracted by 44%, a key indicator of structural change in pig farming. Although the number of pig farms is decreasing, the remaining ones are getting bigger.
The average herd size per farm in 2013 was 585 pigs – a decade later, in 2023, that figure had risen to 810. About 30% of pigs in Germany were kept on farms with 1,000 to 1,999 pigs in 2023.
Pork production
Production levels in Germany seem to have stabilised. In 2025, it produced about 4.3mt of pigmeat, just over 1% more than the previous year. In total, 44.9 million pigs were slaughtered in Germany last year, representing a small 0.6% increase over 2024.
There are changes coming to the abattoir sector, after Dutch food producer Vion Food Group decided to withdraw from the German market. Vion is in the process of selling two of its southern German slaughterhouses, with the sales structured as share deals.
At the time of writing, the company’s Crailsheim site in Baden-Württemberg was being sold to Boeser Frischfleisch, and the Waldkraiburg slaughterhouse in Bavaria to OSI Europe Foodworks, subject to antitrust approval and other customary closing conditions.
Vion said negotiations for the remaining German locations and businesses are ongoing. A company statement said: “The market in southern Germany is undergoing consolidation. In this context, Vion has chosen to partner with parties that demonstrate strong long-term commitment and the ability to invest in a sustainable future for the sites.
‘The locations involved hold significant strategic value for the acquiring parties, supporting their continued development and integration.”
It added that the intended transactions align with its strategic focus on the Benelux region.
The company employs 593 staff and slaughters about 1 million pigs and 95,000 cattle a year at the Crailsheim site, and has 338 employees and slaughters about 163,000 cattle a year in Waldkraiburg.
Pigmeat exports
Germany’s self-sufficiency for pigmeat is about 139%, highlighting the importance of its export trade with many other countries.
However, Germany’s export trade and, by definition, its entire pork sector, were thrown into disarray by the emergence of ASF in wild boar close to the Polish border in September 2020.
While the EU soon accepted the regionalisation principle, allowing trade to continue from outside the infected areas, many other countries, including, crucially, China, banned German pork exports.
In 2019, Germany exported about 600,000mt of pork to China, including roughly 275,000mt of by-product, according to S&P Global. As a result of the loss of this market and other long-term export bans, German pork exports to third countries declined from about 1.18mt in 2019 to just 335,000t in 2025.
China has remained off limits ever since, although progress has finally been made this year. In February, Germany and China signed a declaration of intent to develop an ASF regionalisation agreement, despite continued localised outbreaks of the disease.
Germany has also recently secured an ASF regionalisation agreement with another key Asian pork importer, the Philippines.
It exported 187,000t of pigmeat in January 2026, compared with 178,000t in January 2025. The EU accounted for 83% of these exports, with Italy leading the way with 32,000t, followed by the Netherlands (28,000t), Poland (14,000t) and Austria and Belgium, both approximately 10,000t.
UK trading relations
There is a significant trade in pigmeat between Germany and the UK. Simon Davies, business development manager at the United Pig Co-operative, described Germany as an ‘extremely important market’ for UK cull sows. He estimates that 85-90% of UK cull sows go there.
Germany is one of the major manufacturers and consumers of European sow meat. Trade with sow carcasses takes place with most European member states.
The market can be volatile, however. Oversupply in the EU has seen the sow price plummet in recent months.
In the first quarter of this year, the UK exported 6,372t of fresh and frozen pork to Germany, worth £2.2m – 22% up in volume on Q1 2025. Germany ranked behind China and Ireland as the UK’s third-biggest destination in the category.
In terms of imports, the UK brought in 14,365t of fresh and frozen pork from Germany in Q1, worth £33.6m, alongside small volumes of bacon and ham.
This a big leap on Q1 2025, when a UK ban on German imports was in place after a case of foot-and-mouth disease was detected near Berlin in January.
Mr Davies noted that since regionalisation was accepted by the UK, Germany functions as any EU member state does to the UK, as a third country, in terms of imports.
German meat processor Tonnies now owns a processing plant in the UK, after acquiring C&K Meats in 2019. Mr Davies said it and several subsidiary companies bring German product into the UK on a regionalised basis.
“However, like all importers they will seek the cheapest product on the market, as this is just price driven, and Spain has been among the cheapest of late,” he added.
Farrowing changes
Big change lies ahead for German pig farmers. Under legislation introduced in 2020, breeding units in Germany are required to convert to full group housing with at least 5sq m of space per sow by February 9, 2029.
In farrowing areas, from February 9, 2036 free-range, or flexible farrowing, pens – with a minimum area of 6.5sq m and a maximum confinement period of five days will be mandatory.
Both requirements significantly exceed the requirements of other major European pig-producing nations.
A spokesman for the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity said the regulations have applied to new buildings since 2021.
“Farms with existing buildings may make use of the 15-year transitional arrangement. Accordingly, existing buildings must comply with the requirements for farrowing areas by 2036 at the latest,” it said.
No statistics are available on the number of farmers who have already converted their sow housing.
A survey of 244 pig farms carried out by the German Pig Producers’ Association found it would cost farms about €4,000/sow place to upgrade both their breeding areas and farrowing facilities.
Four German farming industry bodies have recently called for the government to provide €200m/year in targeted support for producers who convert to higher-welfare pig breeding systems.
Farmer view
Roland van Asten is a Dutch farmer operating a 5,000-sow herd in Weimar, Thuringia, eastern Germany, selling all offspring as piglets at 28-30kg to dealers and fattening farms.
“In our region the authorities are pretty much on top of any of the diseases, but in the west of Germany, they are stagnating,” he said.
Speaking at height of the Iran war, he said it was not having a major effect on the farm’s energy costs because it relies on its own biogas to heat the houses.
“However, the long-term effects of this war will result in higher food costs because farmers are reducing inputs – therefore production will fall, and high demand will force hikes in food prices,” he said.
After suffering low prices at the end of 2025 due to weak demand and oversupply, piglet prices in Germany rose again.
At the start of 2026 they were averaging about €30 per 25kg piglet, but had nearly doubled by the end of April. However, the German market has taken another downturn in recent weeks, putting more pressure on farmers.
A massive challenge for all German pig farmers is the far-reaching legislation governing both farrowing and the environment.
“Here in Germany we have some environmental regulations coming that will cost us a lot of money,”
Mr van Asten said. “Farms with over 2,000 fatteners or 750 sows must install air scrubbers to reduce ammonia emissions as part of strict government regulations.”
Commenting on the farrowing regulations, he added: “These changes will cost us a lot of money, but the main issue is the uncertainty that, if we do the work now and spend thousands updating our barns, what’s to say the government won’t change the regulations again?
“We are going to wait until closer to 2035 on our farm to see what happens.
There are no funds to help us pay to change the farrowing system, and it is difficult for us to really know what to comply with, as more changes could be added.”
How ASF continues to hamper Germany
Germany’s initial African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks were in Saxony and Brandenburg in the east of the country. Saxony was declared free of ASF in February this year, only for new cases to emerge in wild boar in April.
Since those initial cases in 2020, the virus has appeared in wild boar and, occasionally, domestic pigs in various other parts of the country.
Between mid-February and mid-April this year, a further 148 cases of ASF were detected in wild boar – 146 in North Rhine-Westphalia and two in Rheinland-Pfalz, both in the west of the country
In early April 2026, in one of the disease hotspots, South-western Westphalia, additional protective fences were erected to help increase wild boar hunting and reduce the risk of further spread. Search teams and hunters remain on continuous duty to get numbers down.
It was the same story in the South Westphalia region, where another protective fence was erected, creating a double fence to further push for ASF eradication.
Since the discovery of a wild boar that died from ASF in the Olpe district in North Rhine-Westphalia in June 2025, wild boar that have been hunted or found dead have been tested for ASF as part of a statewide monitoring programme.
About 520 animals tested positive and around 44,400 across the state tested negative.
The authorities continue to urge pig farms to pay particular attention to the established biosecurity measures for protecting domestic pig populations against ASF, with a big focus on hobby farmers.
North Rhine-Westphalia remains the only German federal state experiencing high infection pressure, while the situation has stabilised in other regions.
In Hesse, which first recorded infection in wild boar in June 2024, monthly cases have not exceeded 20 since August 2025, with only three cases reported in March.
In Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg, where the last outbreaks occurred in mid-2025, authorities are considering declaring the regions ASF-free later this year.