The slaughterhouse giant Danish Crown has warned that yet another round of layoffs could be imminent as the number of Danish pigs for slaughter continues to fall.
A new prognosis from agriculture and food product organisation Landbrug & Fødevarer shows 18.6 million pigs are expected to be slaughtered in Denmark this year, a 2-3 percent decrease on last year and 10 percent less than in 2011.
“We at Danish Crown have a responsibility to adapt our costs and change our capacity and slaughter structure when the number of pigs for slaughter decreases,” Asger Krogsgaard, the deputy chairman of Danish Crown’s board, told Børsen business newspaper.
READ MORE: Danish Crown outsources production to England
Pigs heading south
Danish Crown has closed 18 slaughterhouses and fired over 7,000 employees in Denmark over the past decade, and Krogsgaard said that the company may have to shut down further assets if more pigs don’t begin arriving at their slaughterhouses.
Most recently, Danish Crown decided to move its Faaborg plant to one of its Tulip production areas in Cornwall, England.
The reduction of pigs in Denmark is due to a significant export of piglets to Germany and Poland in particular, where it is more profitable to produce pigs for slaughter. Hence, German farmers can pay more for the piglets than the Danish farmers can.
