EU poultry production fell by nearly 1% last year (2022) and will continue to decline by 0.4% this year, according to the European Commission’s recently published short-term Outlook report.
This is despite poultry being supported by its relative affordability compared to other meats, especially in times of high inflation and with the relaxation of Covid-19-related measures unleashing foodservice demand.
This helped major poultry producing countries, such as Poland, Spain and Germany in the first half of 2022, but high input costs and the devastating impact of high pathogenic avian influenza has caused real problems in many other European countries, particularly Italy, France and Hungary, which have seen an 11% reduction in production.