German meat production stagnates at 6.9 million tons
Slaughterhouses produce around 15,400 tons less meat than in the previous year
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meat production in Germany remained almost unchanged in 2025 at 6.9 million tons of meat. According to preliminary results from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), commercial slaughterhouses produced 0.2% or 15,400 tons less meat in 2025 than in the previous year. In total, around 48.5 million pigs, cattle, sheep, goats and horses as well as 697.3 million chickens, turkeys and ducks were slaughtered in 2025. Previously, meat production had risen again in 2024 for the first time since 2016. In 2016, it had reached its highest level to date with 8.3 million tons of meat. In comparison, the slaughter volume in 2025 was 17.0% lower.
Pork: slaughter volume increased by 1.1%
With 44.9 million animals slaughtered in 2025, the number of pigs slaughtered rose by 0.6% or 259,700 animals compared to the previous year. The number of pigs slaughtered of domestic origin increased by 2.0% to 44.1 million animals. In contrast, the number of imported pigs slaughtered on German farms fell by 43.3% to 759,200 animals.
In total, German slaughterhouses produced around 4.3 million tons of pork in 2025. This was 1.1% or 49,100 tons more than in 2024.
Beef: slaughter volume down by 6.0%
The number of cattle slaughtered commercially in 2025 fell by 7.3% year-on-year to 2.8 million animals. The slaughter volume fell by 6.0% to 0.9 million tons of beef.
Poultry meat: slaughter volume unchanged
The slaughter volume of poultry meat produced in 2025 remained unchanged compared to 2024 at 1.6 million tons (0.0%). The production of young broiler meat increased by 3.6% to 1.1 million tons, while the production of turkey meat fell by 7.7% to 376,800 tons. In total, around 697.3 million chickens were slaughtered by poultry slaughterhouses in Germany in 2025, including 640.3 million young fattening chickens and 20.7 million soup chickens as well as 27.6 million turkeys and 8.3 million ducks.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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