Insemination in cages, group pregnancies, automated feeding, overcrowding, and pigs that weigh almost twice normal, up to 200 kilos. It is the x-ray of the pig sector in China, with up to 50,000 pigs in the same complex.
And they are not farms. They are buildings that are being erected throughout the territory, up to 13 stories high, for intensive pig farming with the aim of not only feeding the population and reducing dependence on the outside, but also stabilizing prices.
In 2018, the Asian giant suffered an outbreak of African swine fever that wiped out half its pig herd and, after a sharp rise in prices and the obligation to have to import massively, among other countries to Spain, its authorities They have decided to take measures so that the situation does not happen again. And they have done it in a big way, taking into account the need to feed a population of 1.4 billion people and that pork is a fundamental part of their diet.
According to the latest data from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, there are currently 178,000 large pig farms in the country and, although according to the national sow census, it has already recovered 95% compared to pre-epidemic levels. of plague, during the last year new outbreaks have arisen that have once again triggered the alarms.
But China is not far behind and opens dozens of farms throughout the country every week. Not in vain accounts for 43.7% of pork consumption worldwide. Nothing more and nothing less than 41.5 million tons in 2020, more than double that of the entire European Union and four times more than the United States. And domestic production is still not enough because it is also the largest importer in the world.
It buys almost half of all the pork that goes to international markets, up to 5.3 million tons in 2020. What is happening in China also explains to a large extent the strong growth that the industry is having in Spain of pigs, with million-dollar investments in new farms, mainly in Aragon and Catalonia, which already account for more than half of the production. China has, in fact, become one of our main markets and, more importantly, Spain has achieved leadership in the Asian country. But the way of producing here, compared to what the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón, said in his interview with The Guardian, is far from what is being done in China.
“There is intensive farming that is absolutely necessary given our climatic conditions because it would be impossible to produce otherwise in the absence of pasture,” explains Josep Collado, general secretary of Fecic, the Spanish Federation of Meat and Meat Industries.
export potential
In the absence of year-end data, between January and October last year, exports of meat products increased by 6.5% in the interannual rate, reaching a total of 8,532. millions of euros. It is a figure that represents 3.3% of the total sales of Spain abroad and that allows us to show a surplus of 6,704.8 million in the first ten months of the year, 5.8% more than in the same period of 2020.
Apart from the European Union, China was the main customer for Spanish pigs between January and November of last year, after importing 1.20 million tons. In this way, it is ahead of markets such as the Philippines, Japan and South Korea, in which Spain is also taking a relevant position, with sales volumes of more than 100,000 tons in each case.
In Spain there are a total of , of which only 2,136 are included within the so-called Group 3, those that can house from 201 to 750 breeding mothers and/or up to 5,500 fattening animals. There are 6,250 heads in total, although the autonomous communities have the power to later raise that limit by another 20%, until reaching 7,200 head of cattle in total.
Control in Spain
Faced with Garzón’s criticism, the general secretary of the pig association assures that on many occasions animal welfare, food and safety conditions are much more controlled on large farms than on small ones. “They are more modern and more efficient,” says Collado, in response to the attacks launched by Garzón, who even said in the British press that Spain was exporting poor-quality meat from mistreated animals.
Our country is also the only one in the EU and in the world that has put, as explained to elEconomista, the director of the National Association of Pork Producers, compared to what happens in other EU states.
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