Dutch piglet exports fall 14.7% in first nine months of 2026

The Netherlands exported 3,746,637 weaned piglets in the first three quarters of 2026, from January to September, according to data from the agricultural industry portal Pigua.info, cited by the Polish farming website Farmer.pl. That is 14.7% fewer than in the same period of 2025, when 4,393,373 animals were shipped abroad. The figures matter for the pork sector because they show how piglet trade flows in Europe are shifting.

Spain and Germany remain the main buyers

Spain remained the largest importer of Dutch piglets, taking 1,640,217 animals. That is 22.5% less than a year earlier, when Spain received 2,117,014. Despite the decline, Spain accounted for 43.8% of total Dutch exports.

Germany came second with 1,627,300 piglets, with shipments down 5.6% year on year. Together, the two countries received 87.2% of all piglets exported from the Netherlands. Belgium was the third-largest market, with 290,235 piglets, 4.1% fewer than the year before.

Sharp fall in Romania, rise in Italy

Among other destinations, the most notable change was a steep cut in deliveries to Romania: exports there dropped 88.3%, from 94,086 to 11,036 animals. The opposite trend appeared in trade with Italy, where deliveries rose 83.1% to 52,756 piglets.

The decline is slowing

Quarterly data show that the pace of the decline is gradually easing. In the first quarter, foreign sales were 19.7% lower than a year earlier, in the second quarter the fall was 16.9%, and in the third it narrowed to 6.5%. Although Dutch piglet exports remain on a downward trend, the scale of the drop became smaller in each successive quarter of 2026.