Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

FARMING

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.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FARMING

Danish insect farm sets sights on feeding Europe’s livestock

At the end of a small country road in Denmark is the "Enorm" factory, an insect farm set up by a Danish woman who wants to revolutionise livestock feed.

Published: 17 July 2024 11:44 CEST
Danish insect farm sets sights on feeding Europe's livestock

Jane Lind Sam and her father, Carsten Lind Pedersen, swapped pigs for soldier flies and created a 22,000-square-metre (237,000 square feet) factory where they intend to produce more than 10,000 tonnes of insect meal and oil a year.

The factory, which opened in December 2023, is the largest of its kind in northern Europe, and its products will initially be used by farmers for animal feed and, perhaps in the future, for human consumption.

The two entrepreneurs are making products that will be “substituting other, maybe less climate friendly products”, Lind Sam, co-owner and chief operations officer, explained to AFP.

They hope to contribute to the evolution of agriculture in a country where the sector’s climate impact is under scrutiny.

In 2020, a report by the University of Copenhagen showed that importing soy products for livestock feed emitted seven million tonnes of planet-heating carbon dioxide, accounting for 60 percent of the total CO2 emissions from Danish agriculture.

However, Enorm — which has started production with the help of public and private investment — still has a modest order book.

“It’s still a virgin industry, the volume in the market is still very limited,” admitted Lind Sam, whose factory has strived to use automation as much as possible.

But according to the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed, the industry is growing and insect meal production could reach one million tonnes by 2030.

Roaring buzz

Under turquoise fluorescent lights, millions of black flies buzzed inside some 500 plastic cages, where they lay hundreds of thousands of eggs every day.

Inside the facility, it was impossible to escape the roar of insects who incessantly lay eggs throughout their 10-day lifespan.

“The female fly lay its eggs in this piece of cardboard,” Lind Sam explained as she pulled out a sheet with a honeycomb pattern at the bottom of one of the cages.

About 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of eggs are produced per day. A single gram corresponds to about 40,000 eggs.

From these eggs come some of tomorrow’s feeder flies, but also the future maggots which, once they have become pupae, will be transformed.

After 12 days, every 25 kilograms of eggs produces 100 tonnes of moist larvae.

Some 500 million maggots are kept in crates in tropical temperatures and fed using waste materials, such as orange peels collected from various local partners.

“They are fascinating animals. And I think it’s amazing that they can live on any organic matter,” Lind Sam said.

Niels Thomas Eriksen, a biologist at Aalborg University, told AFP that “insects can eat materials that other animals probably won’t so we can make better use” of agricultural byproducts and food waste.

Minimising waste is one of Enorm’s key aims and the manufacturer stressed that the rearing of insects facilitates “the recycling of nutrients”.

It takes between 40 and 50 days to produce the finished product, which is mainly flour with a protein content of 55 percent.

It is then distributed across Europe — although Enorm remains discreet about the identity of its customers — used for feed for pig, poultry, fish and pet farms.

The company noted that the larvae also hold “the potential for future integration into human nutrition”.

SHOW COMMENTS