The meat sector consists of farmers in primary production and participants from the slaughterhouses, and the industry therefore covers the interests of both the farming and the food industry.

The Danish producers of meat provide the primary products for the production in the rest of the pig industry’s value chain. Primary production in pig production consists of approximately 2,399 pig farmers (2022). The primary product basis consists of livestock production and plant production that will be turned into animal feed.

The other part of the pig industry is the processing industry performed by Danish slaughterhouses. Here, the pigs from the primary production are slaughtered and processed. Many of the Danish slaughterhouses are cooperatives where the farmers are joint owners of the entire value chain. This provides a unique possibility of coordinating and optimising the value chain from earth to table for the benefit of e.g. the food safety, the quality and the supply security. In 2022, approximately 18 million pigs were slaughtered and 32.8 million pigs were produced in Denmark.