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Resume
The current state of pig-breeding in Bulgaria was analyzed for the period 2005–2014. It was established that in 2014 the total number of pigs decreased by 30% compared with 2005. The decrease of sows amounted to 43.5%. The average number of animals bred on a farm reached 24.8. For comparison, in 2005 the average number of pigs per farm was 4.8.
Consolidation of the sector was reported after the end of 2013, when the number of pigs on farms with more than 200 animals increased by 5.3 thousand, although the number of farms dropped down. In the last five years the largest share of the pigs has been concentrated in three regions of the country – North Central, South-Eastern and North-Eastern.
Despite the large share of pigs in the South-Western Region in 2005–2007, the number of registered pigs decreased abruptly in 2008 and even at present the share remains the smallest one.
The total amount of the produced pork was the lowest in 2014 – 67,441 t, which is by 7,092 t less compared with 2005. In 2009 the pig carcass grading (S)EUROP was applied in 17 slaughterhouses and in 2013 – only in 3. A reduction tendency of S-class carcasses was reported at the expense of the increase of the carcasses of the other classes.