UK pig slaughter remained high in June

By Bethan Wilkins

The latest Defra statistics release reports UK clean pig slaughter in June at 986,200 head. This is 18% higher than the number recorded for June 2020.

Slaughter in May/June last year was particularly low, after some pigs were brought forward earlier in the year in a bid to mitigate the risk of difficulties if COVID-19 limited throughput. With this in mind, we would expect slaughter to be higher at this point in 2021.

Nonetheless, the scale of the year-on-year increase stands out as particularly large for June. Could the reported increase be somewhat exaggerated?

If we look at the number of pigs in the SPP sample, numbers in June were only 4% higher than a year earlier. This is just a subset of total pig kill, so trends won’t exactly follow through to overall slaughter, but we would expect some similarity. The large difference between these trends over the past two months reinforces the idea that the scale of growth reported by Defra could be on the high side. 

The pandemic has created some challenges with data reporting, with Defra relying more on FSA slaughter data than usual, instead of its own slaughter survey. This has perhaps led to some inconsistencies in the data reported.

Looking on a regional basis, the annual trends in clean pig slaughter developed as follows:

• Scotland: -27% at 22,000 head. A key major Scottish abattoir has been operating on a reduced kill lately.
• Northern Ireland: +8% at 165,000 head.
• England and Wales: +23% at 799,000 head.

Overall, the number of clean pigs slaughtered in the first half of the year totalled 5.67 million head, up by nearly 7% on the same period last year.

Slaughter of sows and adult boars in June totalled 23,600 head, 24% higher than June 2020. Logistical problems related to COVID-19 and our departure from the EU have previously disrupted sow throughput, so growth in numbers would be expected as producers catch-up with culling older animals. Poor profitability, at the moment, may also be supporting sow throughput.

Average clean pig carcase weights in June were just under a kilo higher than a year earlier, at 86.4kg. Adding to the increased slaughter numbers, total pig meat production in June was up by 20% on last June, at 88,600 tonnes.

Production in the first half of the year was therefore up by 9% compared to last year, totalling 519,500 tonnes.

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