UK pig meat production: slaughter numbers drive growth in Q3 2024

The latest Defra data shows that the UK produced 79,500 tonnes of pig meat in September. Although this was a small decline (1,000 tonnes) on the previous month, year on year pig meat production in September was up 5.2% (3,900 tonnes).

Defra’s carcase weights data showed no year on year change in September at 89.8kg, meaning the increase in production has come from an increase in clean pig slaughter which stood at 855,000 head.

For the year to date (Jan-Sep) pig meat production is up 3.4% in 2024 compared to 2023 at 711,000 tonnes. Carcase weights have been driving most of the production growth with average weights at 90.1kg, over 1kg heavier year on year. Although clean pig slaughter numbers have picked up in 2024 at 7.63 million head (+2.0% yoy) numbers remain significantly lower than the five-year average.

Growth has not been consistent across 2024. Q1 recorded declines in production of 1.6%, which has been more than counteracted by gains in Q2 and Q3 of 4.4% and 7.5% respectively. It is worth noting that both Q2 and Q3 2024 have had additional working days compared to 2023, likewise there were fewer working days in Q1 2024 compared to 2023 which does bare some weighting on the year on year comparisons, due to the use of calendar months in the data methodology.

Our pork outlook, which was updated at the end of September, forecasts UK pig meat production to end the year up 2.7% at around 951,000 tonnes, with clean pig kill up by a smaller but not insignificant 1.5% to 10.2 million head.

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