Individual trajectories of pig farming in France: mechanisms, determinants and prospects

Abstract. Carried out in 2021 and supported by the French pig interprofession Inaporc, this study described how the structural concentration of pig farms operates at the individual scale and explains determinants of changes and their effects. It was based on analysis of individual trajectories from 2014-2020 of French pig sites in the comprehensive national identification database BDPORC and interviews with 8 technicians of cooperatives and 31 farmers in three contrasting territories of France. From 2014-2020, the number of sites that produced more than 300 pigs a year (2/3 of the total number of sites and 99,3% of the 23,2 millions slaughter pigs produced in 2020) declined linearly from 10,794 to 9,492, and their mean annual production increased from 3,116 to 3,618 pigs. More than 70% of this decrease was due to the drop in the number of sites with sows (farrowers and farrow-to-finishers) from around 5,200 to 4,200 (-18% in 6 years vs -6% for the number of sites without sows). The structural concentration is the result of four trajectories (T). More than 70% of sites remained active over the period without changing their productive orientation (T1). Their production increased by more than 1.2 million slaughter pigs, mainly due to the strong gain in sow productivity. Indeed, the sow herd in France decreased by 5.3% over the period (980,000 sows in 2020). The production gain of the sites of T1 trajectory compensated for the loss of production resulting from the negative balance between cessation (14% of sites, -1.6 M pigs, T2) and entry into activity (3% of sites, +0.3 M pigs, T3). Lastly, 8% of sites changed production orientation (T4) among which 70% were farrow-to-finishers who stopped farrowing to become post-weaners and/or finishers. This development raises the question of the supply of piglets. The changes were determined by the breeders preferences’ for pig production, projects or collective work, or by the search for farm self-sufficiency, greater value for their products and streamlining of the work. In the future, the lack of project leaders and the cessation of farrowing could lead some cooperatives to invest more in farms to guarantee a supply of piglets to their members and maintain their production volumes.