GERMANY

Germany: Meat production remained almost stable in 2025

German meat production remained largely unchanged in 2025: at around 6.9 million tons, it was only slightly below the previous year. While pork production increased slightly, beef production declined noticeably. The poultry sector presented a mixed picture – overall, however, the industry remained significantly below the levels of previous record years.

Posted on Feb 16 ,00:25

Meat production in Germany remained largely stable in 2025. According to preliminary results from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), commercial slaughterhouses produced around 6.9 million tons of meat, 0.2% or 15,400 tons less than in the previous year.

In total, approximately 48.5 million pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, and horses, as well as 697.3 million chickens, turkeys, and ducks were slaughtered. After meat production rose again in 2024 for the first time since 2016, it has now stagnated. Production remains significantly below the previous peak of 8.3 million tons in 2016 and was 17.0% lower in 2025.

In the most significant category by volume, pork, the number of animals slaughtered increased by 0.6% compared to 2024, reaching approximately 44.9 million. The number of domestically produced pigs slaughtered rose by 1.9% to 44.1 million. In contrast, the number of imported pigs slaughtered in German facilities fell by 43.3% to 759,200. Due to higher carcass weights, the total volume of pork produced increased slightly more than the number of animals slaughtered – by 1.1% to approximately 4.3 million tons. This continues the cautious stabilization of pork production.

The picture for beef and poultry was mixed. The number of cattle slaughtered fell noticeably, and beef production declined by 6.0% to approximately 0.9 million tons. Poultry production remained virtually unchanged at a total of 1.6 million tons. While the production of young broiler chicken meat increased (+3.6%), turkey meat production saw a significant decline (-7.7%).

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