Dutch pig slaughters in 2025 lowest since 2010

In 2025, just over 14 million pigs were slaughtered in the Netherlands, the lowest level since 2010. The declining trend in slaughters has been visible for years, but intensified last year. The decrease in slaughters was partly offset by a halving of the export of live pigs to Germany. The number of slaughters also decreased in Germany. To be precise, last year 14,007,851 pigs were hung up in Dutch slaughterhouses. Compared to 2024, this is a decrease of 3.2%. The average slaughter weight last year was 99.8 kilograms, compared to 99.91 kilograms a year earlier. Live export halved On a weekly basis, an average of 269,382 pigs were slaughtered. During the year, the number of slaughters decreased. In the first half, the average weekly number was 275,401 pigs. In the first two months of this year, the slaughter figures also occasionally exceeded the 300,000 mark. In the second half, an average of 263,362 were slaughtered per week. Only in the last full slaughter week before Christmas did the slaughter figure of 300,548 barely exceed the psychological threshold. The number of slaughters decreased less sharply than the number of fattening pigs. This is because the export of fattening pigs, especially to Germany, halved to 361,591. The total export of fattening pigs fell by 48% to 438,916. In other words: on a weekly basis, nearly 8,000 extra pigs remained in the Netherlands. Decrease in Germany The number of slaughtered pigs in Germany decreased last year by 4.3% to 35,763,266 pigs. Thus, the declining trend of recent years continued. However, the slaughter figures in the second half of 2025 frequently exceeded the level of 2024. On a weekly basis, an average of 701,240 pigs were slaughtered last year.