In the first six months of 2012, 28.8 million were slaughtered in Germany. This was 237,000 pigs or 0.8 per cent fewer than last year. The Federal Statistical Office, Destatis, reports that this was the first reduction in slaughter numbers since 2005 and included falls in both imported and domestically reared pigs. A total of 2.7 million tonnes of pork was produced in the period January to June 2012, which is 1.1 per cent down on the previous year.

Reaching a new record, poultry meat production for the first half of 2012 was 713,000 tonnes – 12,700 tonnes or 1.8 per cent more than the same period of 2011. Broiler chickens accounted for most of the output at 432,000 tonnes, up 4.2 per cent.

Commercial cattle slaughter was down slightly for the January to June period at 1.8 million animals, down 0.2 per cent or 4,300 fewer head. As a result, beef output was reduced to 556,00 tonnes – 4,400 tonnes or 0.8 per cent lower than the same period last year.

Meat production from other animals amounted to 11,400 tonnes. Of this category, the most important was lamb production at 8,000 tonnes, which is 6.4 per cent more than in the first six months of 2011.

Compared to the same period last year, total commercial meat production for the first half of 2012, at 4.0 million tonnes, was down 23,600 tonnes or 0.8 per cent.