Genesus, overview of world markets. Europe. February 2024

Complaints about legislation, bureaucracy, government , vegans... ... ... Currently, mainly only producers and MEAT processors in Europe make money, but in most other countries of the world they do not. And just two years ago, European pig farmers were losing fortunes...

We cannot predict the future - this saying applies to most things. But in the pork industry, we can do it. We know that at some point in the next three years in Europe we will lose money again . What can we do in this direction as an industry? Absolutely nothing, and this is the absolute truth. I have worked in this industry all my life, I know that the pork industry has been, is and will continue to be cyclical unless the industry does something about it.

One definition of stupidity is to continue doing the same thing, expecting a different result. If we as an industry don't change what we do, how can we expect the outcome to change? It's simple - nothing will ever change, and market reports will continue to report ups and downs!

The reality is that the global pork industry is in crisis.

- Poor livestock HEALTH, ASF , PRRS, EDS...
- High mortality...
- Problems with limbs and lameness, prolapse, cannibalism...
- Decline in pork consumption in developed countries (both Europe and North America predict a very significant decline in per capita pork consumption population) ...
- Even more laws to protect animal rights ... of course, how else can we justify the mortality of sows from 10% to 20% and the mortality of piglets from birth to slaughter from 20% to 30%...
- A guarantee system that is not worth it the paper it was written on (there is another possible report on this)!!!
- Aging of farmers and workers (the situation is becoming critical) ...
- Crisis in attracting people to work on pig farms ...
And this is what we have in 2024 with all the new achievements of science and technology! Scientific developments and technologies should improve the situation, not worsen it!!! Can you imagine sports teams and athletes getting worse? The cars we buy are becoming less efficient and less reliable. Computers are becoming slower and last no more than a year. I think no!

As with everything in life, to solve a problem, you first need to admit that you have it and then actually want to change something. ALCOHOL, drug and gambling addictions are simple examples of this. The pig industry seems to be addicted to “doom and gloom”!

“I'm a pig farmerand I expect there will be losses!” Like other people with other addictions, we continue to believe that tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow the price of pigs will be higher, and tomorrow the horse I bet on will win. And yes, tomorrow I will stop drinking, I promise!

To get out of the crisis, we need a revolution!

We must reduce the impact of disease on mortality and productivity. We know that isolating populations is a very effective tool. To use a phrase from “lockdown” during the CORONAVIRUS pandemic. We know that the biggest risk for a pig to become infected is another pig . We know the value of good biosecurity. We've known this for years...

What are we doing as an industry? In England we keep half the pigs in fields where there is no biosecurity!!! We continue to transport replacement gilts from farm to farm around the world. We continue to combine groups of pigs on grower-finisher and full-cycle wean-finish farms. We continue to transport pigs hundreds and even thousands of miles from the farm where they were born to finishing farms. In Europe, even from one country to another... What can we expect!

Genetic companies have improved genetics so much that we now consider sow mortality below 10% to be good, and mortality above that ten percent to be normal! Then we wonder why animal rights activists are so upset and then we have to deal with new pig keeping laws and the costs of modernizing our farms! If sow mortality was just 1% lower, we could easily stand up and protect what we do. Today we have to lock our farms for fear that someone will come in with a camera! This is even on farms that are accredited to the highest standards by organizations such as the RSPCA in the UK!

For those of you who don't know me, I remember the moment I became hooked on pigs - I was 12 years old and watching a sow farrow in undisguised amazement. Now that I'm 60, at the end of my career, and having traveled the world doing what I love, I look around and think, “What the hell happened to the pork industry?” I know that as we age our memories begin to deteriorate, but my memories of working on pig farms in my youth are very fresh - I remember very well that sometimes (very rarely) we would have a dead sow!

Would I choose a career in the pork industry today? Reading the weekly market reports - definitely not! Why on earth?!