Statistics — livestock and meat under the common agricultural policy

 

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008 — livestock and meat statistics

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

• It sets up a system for the compilation and production of statistics on livestock and meat in the EU. These statistics are used to manage and evaluate the EU’s common agricultural policy.
• It repeals Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC.

KEY POINTS

Scope

The regulation covers statistics on:

• bovine*, pig, sheep and goat livestock;
• bovine animals, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry slaughtering.

It also covers the compilation of production forecasts for beef, veal, pigmeat, sheepmeat and goat meat.

Livestock statistics

Coverage and categories

EU countries must produce statistics on the number of bovine animals, pigs, sheep and goats held on agricultural holdings on their territory. Those conducting sample surveys must cover sufficient agricultural holdings to account for at least 95% of the entire population, as determined by the last survey on the structure of agricultural holdings. The categories for which livestock statistics are produced are set out in AnnexII of the regulation.

Frequency and reference period

Statistics on sheep and goats are produced yearly, whereas for bovine animals and pigs they are produced twice yearly. The exception is in countries where the population of a certain animal type is below a given threshold. where statistics are not produced for sheep and goats and where these are only produced yearly for bovines and pigs.

Precision

EU countries conducting sample surveys must ensure that extrapolated national survey results meet the precision requirements in Annex III of the regulation.

Where countries use an administrative source, they must inform the European Commission (Eurostat) of their methodology and of the quality of data.

When using sources other than surveys, the information obtained must be of at least equal quality to the information obtained from statistical surveys.

Transmission deadlines

The regulation sets deadlines by which EU countries must transmit provisional and definitive livestock statistics to the Commission.

Regional statistics

November/December statistics must be broken down by NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 territorial units as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003, and only by NUTS 1 territorial units for Germany and the United Kingdom (1). If these territorial units together constitute 5% or less of the national population of the relevant animals, then these statistics are optional for territorial units having fewer than:

• 75,000 bovine animals,
• 150,000 pigs,
• 100,000 sheep, and
• 25,000 goats.

Slaughtering statistics

Coverage and categories

Each EU country must produce statistics relating to the number and carcass weight of bovine animals, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry slaughtered in slaughterhouses on its territory and whose meat is deemed fit for human consumption. It must also supply estimates of the extent of slaughtering not carried out in slaughterhouses, so that the statistics include all bovine animals, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry slaughtered on its territory. The categories for which statistics should be produced are listed in AnnexIV of the regulation.

Frequency and transmission

Statistics on slaughtering in slaughterhouses are to be produced monthly and be transmitted to Eurostat within 60 days.

Meat production forecasts

Coverage

EU countries must use the livestock and slaughtering statistics and other available information to produce forecasts of their supply of bovine animals, pigs, sheep and goats. This supply must be expressed as the gross indigenous production, which corresponds to the number of bovine animals, pigs, sheep and goats slaughtered plus the balance of trade within the EU and of external trade in these live animals. Forecasts are produced for the categories listed in AnnexV of the regulation.

Frequency, reference periods and transmission deadlines

The regulation sets out the frequency, the reference periods to be covered by the forecasts by animal type and the deadlines by which EU countries must transmit meat production forecasts to Eurostat.

General rules

• EU countries are responsible for the quality of the data they transmit to Eurostat, who then assesses the data in terms of their relevance, punctuality, accessibility, clarity and comparability.
• The Commission has the power to adopt amendments to the regulation’s annexes. Eurostat is assisted and advised by the European Statistical System Committee, a committee of national experts.
• Every 3 years, EU countries provide Eurostat with a report on the quality of the data transmitted.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since 1 January 2009.

BACKGROUND

For more information, see:

• ‘Agricultural production — animals’ (Eurostat).

KEY TERMS

MAIN DOCUMENT

Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 concerning livestock and meat statistics and repealing Council Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC (OJ L 321, 1.12.2008, pp. 1-13)

Successive amendments to Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008 have been incorporated into the original document. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, pp. 1-41)

See consolidated version.

last update 15.01.2018

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(1) The United Kingdom withdraws from the European Union and becomes a third country (non-EU country) as of 1 February 2020.