Meat production increased by 1.4 % in 2024
Meat production rises again for the first time since 2016, but remains almost a quarter below the previous peak
meat production in Germany increased by 1.4% in 2024 compared to the previous year. According to preliminary results from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), commercial slaughterhouses produced 6.9 million tons of meat in 2024. This was 97,200 tons more than in the previous year. Domestic meat production thus rose again for the first time since 2016 (8.4 million tons) after seven consecutive declines. In total, 48.7 million pigs, cattle, sheep, goats and horses as well as 693.3 million chickens, turkeys and ducks were slaughtered in slaughterhouses in 2024.
Pork: slaughter volume increased by 1.9%
With 44.6 million animals slaughtered in 2024, the number of pigs slaughtered rose by 1.2% or 531,300 animals compared to the previous year. The number of pigs slaughtered of domestic origin increased by 1.6% to 43.3 million animals. In contrast, the number of imported pigs slaughtered on German farms fell by 9.2% to 1.3 million animals.
In total, German slaughterhouses produced around 4.3 million tons of pork in 2024. This was 1.9% or 80,500 tons more than in 2023, but 1.3 million tons less than in the record year of 2016, which corresponds to a decrease of almost a quarter (-24.9%).
Beef: slaughter volume up by 1.2%
The number of cattle slaughtered commercially in 2024 remained almost unchanged compared to the previous year, rising by 0.1% to 3.0 million animals. However, the slaughter volume rose by 1.2% to 1.0 million tons of beef, with average slaughter weights increasing in all cattle categories.
Poultry meat: slaughter volume increased by 0.3
The amount of poultry meat produced in 2024 rose by 0.3% to 1.6 million tons compared to 2023. This increase was solely due to the 1.8% rise in the production of young broiler meat to 1.1 million tons. In contrast, the production of turkey meat fell by 2.1% to 408,100 tons. In total, around 653.8 million chickens were slaughtered on farms in 2024, of which 626.7 million were young fattening chickens and 27.1 million were soup chickens. There were also 30.2 million turkeys and 9.3 million ducks.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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