The amount of pigmeat produced in the United Kingdom in 2023 plummeted through 11% to a five-year low, as slaugherings declined through 10% to the bottom determine in a decade.
The most recent Defra slaughter statistics confirmed the United Kingdom produced 71,900 tonnes of pigmeat in December, an enormous 18% decline of 14,300t when put next with December 2022. This was once at the again of a 17% decline in blank pig slaughter numbers to 781,800 head, representing a lack of over 177,000 head from December 2022, regardless of reported efforts to drag pigs forwards forward of Christmas.
The December slaughtering deficit contrasted with a lot smaller year-on-year declines for November (910,000) and October (887,000) of five% and 10% respectively. “Adversarial rainy climate prerequisites brought about flooding and wider disruption all the way through the month and could have had an have an effect on on throughputs,” stated AHDB senior analyst Freya Shuttleworth.
The December pig manufacturing determine intended that for the whole 12 months of 2023, the United Kingdom produced 927,400t of pig meat, an 11% 12 months on 12 months decline and the bottom annual quantity recorded since 2018.
The fundamental motive force was once a pointy fall within the collection of pigs slaughtered. The 2023 blank pig kill fell through 10% 12 months on 12 months to ten.06 million head, a lack of greater than 1.1m head and the bottom annual blank pig kill in a decade.
Carcase weights, averaging at 89.1kg, had been decrease all the way through 2023, when put next with 2022 when the backlog ended in increased weights.
The sow and boar kill has additionally fallen in 2023, down 15% 12 months on 12 months, most probably because of the contraction observed in the United Kingdom pig herd all the way through 2022 and 2023.
Those professional manufacturing and slaughter figures enhance the image painted through the fresh newsletter of Defra’s June 2023 census figures appearing the total pig inhabitants declined through greater than 10% between June 2022 and June 2023 to face at 4.68million head.
The collection of fattening pigs in June 2023 was once down through 11.2% to 4.26 million head, the bottom quantity recorded since 2015, reflecting 2022’s UK breeding herd contraction at the again of the two-year business disaster and the affects on fertility of the summer time 2022 heatwave.