Browse Data and Analysis

Following declining production in 2021 due to COVID-19 and outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), EU chicken meat production is expected to resume growth in 2022 and 2023. The EU chicken meat trade surplus will decrease as imports are growing and exports will continue to decline. As consumption in hotels, restaurants and institutional (HRI) outlets resumes, demand for inexpensive chicken meat, especially from Brazil and Thailand, is rising.

The European Commission has published a draft of Article 118 of the EU Veterinary Medicinal Products Regulation (EU) 2019/6, which extends the EU ban on the use of certain antimicrobials in animals and products of animal origin to imports into the Union.

In 2021 and 2022 to date, the Bulgarian livestock industry has successfully recovered following the 2019 African Swine Fever (ASF) crisis. The major challenges in 2021/2022 were related to sharply increasing feed grain and energy prices, skyrocketing inflation, and fluctuations in consumer demand related to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Animal health concerns, feed, energy, fuel prices, and labor are the major factors impacting the Romanian swine sector. Romania’s swine herd had a 5.9 percent year-on-year decline in May 2022, while pork meat imports grew by 23 percent during the first eight months of 2022.