Dear readers,
We always look for some good news from our industry:
- People still prefer meat real meat. Joe Erlinger, the president of McDonald’s U.S., speaking during the Wall Street Journal’s Global Food Forum in Chicago, declared the company’s 2021 – 2022 test of its McPlant burger in San Francisco and Dallas “was not successful in either market,” US consumers aren’t “coming to McDonald’s looking for the McPlant or other plant-based proteins”.
- Westfleisch is looking for over 500 thousand pigs with animal welfare status 3 or 4, in order to fulfill the demands of some retail chains. The chains are also sustaining more meat coming from 5 D(born, raised, fed, slaughtered, deboned in Germany)
Events calendar:
- Everything is ready for the celebration of the 8th edition of the Porc d’Or Ibérico Awards in Spain, which will take place in Córdoba on July 5,at The Córdoba Conference Center
- The India HoReCa Expo is a premier trade fair dedicated to the hospitality and hotel sectors. In July, it’s hosted in Coimbatore at the Codissia Trade Fair Complex on 3 days from Wednesday, 03. July to Friday, 05. July 2024.
Denmark
The awaited raise of the pig prices ended up in decreasing piglet prices. It is one way to generate better income for the pig producers…
In Germany more and more pig farmers are emptying their stables, as shown by the livestock census from May 2024. At the beginning of May this year, there were 15,700 pig farms in Germany.10 years ago there were a full 42.2% more farms: 27,100 pig farmers in Germany. From November 2023 to May 2024, another 500 farms gave up pig farming , that is 2.7 farms that stop pig farming every day. As of May 3, German farmers kept a total of 20.9 million pigs . That is 1.3% and 175,200 animals less than six months earlier. In the last 10 years, the pig stocks of German farmers have declined by 25.4% and 7.1 million animals.
Political solution? At the German Farmers’ Association annual meeting in Cottbus, Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir spoke out in favor of increasing VAT on meat to finance higher animal husbandry standards. How will consumers react and what will happen to the meat of different origin?
The Danish government will implement Europe’s first carbon tax on agriculture after months of negotiations with farming and agriculture organizations.
Denmark, until now a major pork and dairy exporter, will charge farmers for livestock emissions from 2030. 120 Danish krone (around €16) per ton of CO2 emissions will be charged, and this will increase to 300 Danish krone (around €40) per ton in 2035.The government says the agreement aims to reduce Danish emissions by 1.8 million tons of CO2 in 2030, closing “the shortfall in relation to the 2030 climate target.” Danish food exports rose to an unprecedented level in 2022 and ended at around DKK 196 billion(around € 26,3 billion), equivalent to 24 percent of the total Danish export of goods. The agrifood cluster is a major contributor to the Danish economy with more than 180,000 jobs, 61 percent of Denmark’s land area is used for agricultural purposes. I think this will change…
We have seen many changers in the government approach to the pig industry lately, especially in the last few years. The dark green agenda is gaining power and it is not surprising that disappointed farmers give their votes to far right or left parties, as long as they see no support from the mainstream political options. Is this the way to keep the agricultural self sufficiency at an affordable cost for Europeans? A process that started over a decade ago and its increasing: investors in the pig industry are moving out of the less and less favorable Germany, Denmark, but also from The Netherlands and Belgium, going to the east of Europe, where farming is not (yet) the enemy of the citizen.
Anyhow, with the latest decision, Denmark is coming close to the famous quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Marcellus and Horatio debate whether or not to follow Hamlet, questioning the moral legitimacy of a ruler and the health of the state as a whole: “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”…
