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Number of pigs on Danish farms at 25-year low

The number of pigs bred and kept at farms in Denmark has dropped to its lowest level since 1998.

Published: 8 May 2023 17:48 CEST

Number of pigs on Danish farms at 25-year low

File photo of an organic pig farm in Denmark. The number of farm pigs in the country is at its lowest since 1998. Photo: Keld Navntoft/Ritzau Scanpix

In the first quarter of 2023, the number of pigs dropped by as much as 20 percent to around 2.2 million in Denmark, a country occasionally light-heartedly described as having “more pigs than humans”.

The current number of pigs is the lowest since 1998 and well under the human population of 5.8 million.

The count of pigs comes from national agency Statistics Denmark.

The news will come as little surprise to the agricultural sector, however, with meat producer Danish Crown having fired 800 staff from its slaughterhouse in the town of Sæby last month.

Inflation has made it increasingly difficult for Danish pig farmers to cover costs, the company has said.

As a result, many have closed their styes while others have sold their animals for export. Both factors have had knock-on effects at Danish Crown.

The chairman of the national association for pig farmers (Landsforeningen af Danske Svineproducenter), Jeppe Bloch Nielsen, said he was concerned more businesses would close in the near future.

“These figures reveal the consequence of Danish Crown not having been able to pay a competitive pork rate to farmers. This has meant that the production of pigs for slaughter has been loss-making for Danish farmers for a long period,” Nielsen told media Finans.

“In the rest of Europe, slaughterhouses pay higher prices for the pigs, which results in high prices for piglets in those countries. That is why Danish farmers choose to export piglets out of the country instead of raising them for slaughter in Denmark,” he said.

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Danish expert committee proposes CO2 emissions tax for agriculture

The committee proposed a relatively low starting level of 750 kroner per ton emitted, along with two other options.

The report was originally due to be submitted last year but has been delayed.

Notably, the committee said that the introduction of a CO2 emissions tax on agriculture would lead to several thousand job losses. This may be seen as a blow by the government, which has stated it does not want its policies to causes job losses or damage competitiveness in Danish agriculture.

However, the committee said that job losses could be recouped in other areas.

“They will be distributed in the rest of the economy. Around 800,000 people in Denmark change their job each year. They can find work in anything from retail to service to manufacturing businesses,” economics professor Michael Svarer, the head of the committee, said at a briefing.

In the model with the highest proposed rax of 750 kroner per ton emitted, a permanent loss of jobs of 8,000 persons is predicted.

All three of the proposed options would result in an initial loss of jobs. The medium option would cost 4,000 jobs and the lightest option – a tax of 125 kroner per ton emitted – would cost around 2,000 jobs.

The committee argues that those figures are small in the context of the volume of turnover on the labour market.

“There’s a high demand for labour in Denmark and has been for a long time. We are not concerned that if we do these things, they won’t find new jobs,” Svarer said.

In isolation, employment in the agriculture sector would fall by 10 percent with the highest tax and 2 percent for the lowest tax.

Rural regions like West Jutland, where agriculture is a major employer, would be more severely affected.

Opponents of the planned CO2 tax have expressed concerns about a loss of jobs and competitiveness against foreign agriculture sectors which don’t have a similar tax. They also say that emissions would simply be moved abroad, and not prevented altogether, if Denmark taxes its agriculture on emissions.

The economic committee said that around 3 percent of jobs and emissions would relocate abroad due to the tax.

Denmark’s politicians have set a long-term target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent in 2030 compared to 1990.

The committee was asked to produce recommendations for an emissions tax on agriculture to contribute to this target without costing jobs.

But the expert group said it is not possible to deliver a model that meets both criteria.

The committee also calculated how the carbon tax will affect the price of products like meat and milk for consumers in Denmark.

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