A new report published by Eurostat has demonstrated a decline in all types of meat production in Europe in 2023, bar chicken, as well as a reduction in livestock populations.

These figures were surveyed and collected under mandate by EU member states. They are conducted twice per year for bovine and pig livestock and every year for sheep and goat.

The report also shows that at the end of 2023, there were 133 million pigs, 74 million bovine animals and 68 million sheep and goats in the EU, the majority of which is concentrated in a number of key member states.

Spain accounted for about one-quarter of the EU’s pig (25.4%) and sheep (23.6%) populations in 2023, while Greece had a similar share of the EU’s goat population (25.8%) and France a somewhat smaller share (22.8%) of the bovine population.

Some EU countries are relatively specialised in terms of livestock farming – for instance, Ireland had the fourth largest population of cattle in the EU, at 8.8% of the collective European herd, which is less than France, Turkey and Germany, but more than Spain and Italy.

While Denmark accounted for 8.6% of the EU’s pig population, a close second behind France.

A downward trajectory in livestock population figures over the last two decades were also indicated by the report, which shows that sheep and goats figures fell by 22% while bovine numbers fell by 9%.

From 2022 to 2023 alone, the populations of sheep, pigs and bovine animals all decreased at a similar rate (between -1.0% and -1.5%) while goat numbers fell down by 5.2%.

Poultry meat

In 2023, poultry meat production in the EU increased by 2.3% to 13.3 million tonnes, which signifies a return to 2020 figure highs.

Poland contributed the most to these production figures at 20.6% ( 2.7 million tonnes), followed by Spain at 12.8% (1.7 million tonnes), Germany at 11.8% (1.6 million tonnes) and France at 11.5% (1.5 million tonnes).

Italy increased its production by 10% last year, representing 10.0% of the EU’s overall production at 1.3 million tonnes. 

Pig meat

In contrast, EU’s production of pig meat in 2023 stood at 20.6 million tonnes, which was down 11.8% (2.8 million tonnes) from its 2021 peak at 23.4 million tonnes.

This indicates the lowest levels of production in 15 years of records.

Spain was the largest producer of pig meat in 2023, contributing to 23.6% of the EU collective with 4.9 million tonnes, followed by Germany with 4.2 million tonnes (20.4%), France (10%) and Poland (8.6%).

Production declines were evident across EU member states, including Ireland which suffered a 11% decline in 2023, however, the strongest rates of decline were evident in the Netherlands and Denmark at 13.1% and 19.9% respectively.

Veal and beef

The EU produced 5.7 million tonnes of beef last year, with more than three-quarters of production emanating from six countries, including France (20.7%); Germany (17.3%); Ireland (10.9%); Italy (9.7%); Poland (9.3%) and Spain (9.1%).

Veal production in 2023 constituted 0.7 million tonnes, with the biggest European contributors being the Netherlands (27.5%), Spain (21.9%), France (18.3%) and Italy (9.6%).

Collectively, beef and veal production volumes have fallen in recent years, with 2023 producing 255,000t less than 2022, indicating a 3.8% decline in production in the year alone.

Sheep and goat meat

The EU produced 7% less sheep and goat meat in 2023 in comparison to 2022, at 0.4 million tonnes (sheep meat represented 90% of this figure).

Spain produced the most sheep meat at 26.5%, followed by France (18.4%), Ireland (17.7%) and Greece (11.6%).