The BamS interview with Cem Özdemir (56, Greens) last Sunday was the topic of the week: The new Agriculture Minister criticized junk prices for food because they ruin our farmers and harm the animals.
Since then, Germany has been discussing: does our food really have to get more expensive? And who can even afford that? Özdemir now wants to check whether he can prohibit large supermarket chains from selling food below production costs.
The case of a farming family in Rhineland-Palatinate shows how dramatic the situation is: Marco Weber (46), fourth generation pig farmer, is giving up. So far he has had 250 breeding sows, 700 fattening pigs and 2000 piglets in his stable in Lissendorf. Today there are only 300 piglets left – and he will sell them in March too.
“What my great-grandfather started 110 years ago just doesn’t work any more today,” Weber told BILD am SONNTAG. “I was even in the stable until 8 p.m. at Christmas – but in the end I lost 5300 euros every week.”
5300 euros ?! He does the math: “We last sold 50 pigs a week to butchers. At the beginning of 2020 we received 200 euros per animal – in the end it was only 114 euros. That makes a loss of around 4,300 euros. We lost another 1000 euros when we sold piglets. “
Weber, who sits in the state parliament for the FDP in Mainz, criticizes: “Due to Corona, swine fever and the Tönnies crisis, the prices for fattening pigs went down. But the prices for a schnitzel in the supermarket stayed almost the same. “
How can that be? “The middlemen are playing to their power and are filling their pockets,” Weber grumbled. “But also some butchers!”
Photo: Harald Title / dpa
“data-zoom-src =” https://bilder.bild.de/fotos/nach-mehr-als-drei-generationen-ist-schluss-marco-weber-in-einem-seiner-staelle-auf-dem- dennerthof-i-59b5bca78560460b90398878b2135277-78699184 / image / 4.image.jpg”/> After more than three generations, it’s over: Marco Weber in one of his stables on the Dennerthof in the VulkaneifelPhoto: Harald Title / dpa
Weber is not the only German pig farmer to give up. Since 2011, their number has fallen by 37.5 percent to just under 12,000 companies. According to a survey by the German Pig Farmers’ Interest Group (ISN) in the summer, half of German pig farmers want to stop in the next ten years.
How much would a pig have to cost so that the farmers can at least cover their expenses? “At least 200 euros, around 65 percent more than today,” says ISN boss Torsten Staack (45) to BILD am SONNTAG: “But that’s not really enough! The farmers need profits to be able to invest. “
And farmers’ association president Joachim Rukwied (60) says: “For us farmers, it is crucial that more money arrives on our farms. Everyone has to contribute, including consumers. That means clearly: Meat has to become more expensive. “
Marco Weber would actually have liked to bequeath his business to his three children – instead, the huge stables will be empty from March onwards.
Will he go back to business when pork prices go up again? “No,” he waves it away. “I just don’t think the conditions will improve for us in the long term. And not just me. The business that has bought our piglets for years is also ending. “
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