Ireland had the third highest number of bovine animals in the European Union (EU) in 2021, according to a new report from Eurostat.
The report – Key figures on the European Food Chain – highlights that certain EU countries now have a dominant position in relation to specific livestock populations.
The latest Eurostat report details that France had a 22.9% share of the bovine population while Spain had around one quarter of the EU’s pig (24.3%), sheep (25.1%)
and goat (22.7%) populations in 2021.
Greece also had around 24.9% of the EU’s goat population while Denmark had the third highest number of pigs in 2021.
According to the latest report there has been an overall decline in livestock populations across the EU over the last two decades.
Bovine numbers decline in EU
Eurostat outlines that between 2001 and 2021, the EU’s total livestock count for pigs, bovine animals, sheep and goats fell by an estimated 11.5% from 326 million to 289 million.
It specified that between 2020 and 2021 the population of bovine animals in the EU is estimated to have fallen by 1.1%.
The latest Eurostat report also examined output price indices across the EU in 2021 and noted that poultry and cattle prices rose strongly last year.
But it observed volatility in prices for pigs compared to a sharper increase in prices for sheep and a more moderate increase during 2021 for goats.
Eurostat also compared how livestock population corresponded in various EU member states to meat production and highlighted the role of consumer attitudes to eating meat to production levels.
According to its analysis there was “a rapid and relatively uniform increase” in the production of poultry meat across the EU with poultry meat production jumping by an estimated 41% between 2006 to 2021.
In contrast pigmeat production rose by just 9.4% while the production of bovine meat fell 7.4% between 2006 and 2021.
Last year an estimated 13.2 million tonnes of poultry meat were produced in the EU which was almost twice as much as the amount of bovine meat produced, which was estimated to be in the region of 6.8 million tonnes.
According to the Eurostat report France topped the polls in relation to bovine meat production in the EU in 2021.
France produced more than one fifth of all the EU’s bovine meat production – around 20.9%, or 1.4 million tonnes compared to Ireland which produced an estimated 8.7%.
Germany also produced a relatively large share – 15.8% while Italy produced 11% and Spain around 10.6 of all bovine meat production in the EU in 2021.