Pig farming in the European Union: considerable variations from one Member State to another

This article provides a general overview of statistics on pig farming in the European Union (EU). Pigmeat is produced throughout the EU on several types of farms with considerable variations from one Member State to another. Three quarters of pigs are reared by just 1.5% of the largest fatteners. Small pig producers are mostly found in the 13 Member States that joined the EU since 2004, which creates a decreasing size of the herd. The tasks of pig rearing are distributed across farms in the main production basins and even across regions.