Data from the Survey on the Structure of Agricultural Holdings, analyzed by the ACN, shows that between 1993 and 2023, the ratio of livestock heads per farm multiplied by five, increasing from an average of 374 to 1,901 pigs per farm.
This growth occurred despite a reduction in the total number of farms, which fell from 5,566 to 5,267 over the last decade. Currently, only eight large companies manage 30% of the country's more than 5,000 farms, with the Vall Companys group from Lleida being the main firm.
“"There are many people who remain in the countryside because they have pigs, because they help pay for the tractor loan, the irrigation, etc. It is a fixed income."
Pere Castell, UB Economics professor, points out that the increase in the average farm size responds to the pursuit of economies of scale, both internal (automation) and external (clustering), allowing for higher production at lower costs.
Concentration is highest in Segrià (767 farms), Osona (600), and Noguera (684), which together account for over 38% of the total. The majority of Catalan municipalities (568) have some form of pig farming operation within their territory.
“"If I have 10 farms with 500 animals, I have 10 risks of infection, and if I have one farm with 5,000, I only have one risk of infection."
