Last year, the performance of animal husbandry also expanded dynamically in the EU comparison

By: STA Date: 2025. 03. 07. 09:30

According to the latest EU data, Hungary produced the fifth highest growth in pig and poultry slaughtering among the European Union member states, and the second highest growth in milk purchase in the period from January to November 2024. This represents an increase of 7.7 percent in pig slaughtering, 7.1 percent in poultry slaughtering, and 5.2 percent in milk purchase compared to the same period in 2023, said Zsolt Feldman, State Secretary for Agriculture and Rural Development at the Ministry of Agriculture.

(Photo: Pixabay)

The State Secretary emphasized that more favorable production costs, more stable purchase prices, available subsidies, and domestic and foreign consumption that is back on a growth path provide favorable conditions for animal husbandry and animal product production. If we consider the entire year 2024 from January to December, a total of about 4.8 million pigs were slaughtered, with a live weight of nearly 564 thousand tons, and all this occurred with increasing live animal exports and decreasing live animal imports. Another significant result is that in the case of poultry, a total of more than 237 million slaughter poultry were slaughtered, which exceeded 726 thousand tons in live weight. Here, the growth was driven by the chicken sector.

Hungarian milk production also showed dynamic performance in 2024, as it increased to 1.73 million tons

Zsolt Feldman emphasized that thanks to the largest investment and modernization program related to animal husbandry in years, which has been underway since the change of regime, there is an intensive increase in sectoral efficiency on the side of raw material production, which strengthens the domestic and international competitiveness of Hungarian animal husbandry.