/ EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROSTAT
Directorate E: Sectoral and regional statistics
Unit E-2: Agriculture and fisheries /

Luxembourg, 22Mars 2011

ESTAT/E.2/ PM/er

ASA/TE/696.rev1Original EN
(Only available in EN)

Working Group on
Animal Production Statistics
of the
Agricultural Statistics Committee

17–18 March 2011

AmpereMeeting Room, Bech Building
Kirchberg, Luxembourg

Chaired by: Gita Bergere

Implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008
Changes introduced by the harmonisation of statistics

Item 4.5on the agenda

Document available on Circa at:

Executive summary

Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008 introduced some changes to the previous legislation. To help with data interpretation, this documentdescribes these changes.

The members of the APS Working Group are asked:

  • to check the information about their country and, where appropriate, to report any further changes;
  • to take note of the reported changesin methodology.

1.Background

  1. When implementing Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008[1] on livestock and meat statistics, one side-effect of the improvement in comparability was a break in the time series for some national statistics.
  2. Users needmethodological information to help them interpret the data.This document provides them with the information they need to interpret the abovementioned breaks correctly.
  3. This document could be revised in the light of information collected later, such as explanations of breaks in the time series or further data received to describesuch breaks.Its purpose is to cover exhaustively the changes introduced by the new legislation.

2.Description of changes

2.1.Coverage of monthly slaughtering

  1. Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008 changed the coverage of monthly slaughtering statistics from animals slaughtered ‘on the Member State’s territory’ to animalsslaughtered ‘in slaughterhouses on its territory’, i.e. ‘slaughtering carried out other than in slaughterhouses’is no longer recorded monthly and is estimated separately from the basic slaughtering statistics.
  2. The former legislation, i.e. Council Directives 93/23/EEC, 93/24/EEC and 93/25/EEC of 1 June 1993 on the statistical surveys to be carried out on, respectively, pig production, bovine animal production and sheep and goat stocks (OJ L 149 , 21.6.1993, pp. 1–4, 5–9 and 10–13 respectively), stated that:
    ‘If necessary, they [the Member States] shall also supply estimates of slaughterings not included in the returns, so that the statistics include all the pigs/bovine animals/sheep and goats slaughtered on their territory.’
  3. Some Member States interpreted the former legislation as meaning that it was necessary to cover slaughtering carried out other than in slaughterhouses. The Member States concerned were free to use whatever statistical method they chose, for instance:
    - slaughtering in slaughterhouse + fixed coefficient for other slaughtering;
    - slaughtering in slaughterhouse + ad hoc survey/estimate for other slaughtering;
    - overall slaughtering estimate.
    No further information on the methods applied has been collected.
  4. Table1shows which Member States covered ‘other slaughtering’in 2008 and its share of national production of meat.
  5. Atthe same time, the ‘hygiene package’ (Regulation (EC) No 853/2004[2]) was introduced, requiring all slaughterhouses in the Member States to be certified. As a result, non-certified slaughterhouses became illegal and had to cease activity by 1January 2010. Their activities in 2009 were therefore not covered by the slaughtering statistics. Similarly, nor are the activities of non-certified slaughterhouses in non-EU countries covered by the monthly statistics.
  6. Consequently, two series of figures are collected on slaughtering: the core series is intended to represent the market and appliesto slaughterhouses, while a peripheral series reflects other slaughtering performed on the territory of the Member States. The first is collected monthly, whereas the second is estimated annually.
  7. A gentlemen’s agreement[3] has been reached with the Member States reporting significant other slaughtering, in order to obtain better knowledge of the monthly distribution of their annual estimate. This gentlemen’s agreement covers figures for 24 months of ‘other slaughtering’: the figures collected should help to bridge the time series and also to estimate monthly figures from the annual values collected.

2.2.Coverage of livestock and meat statistics

  1. In order (i) to lightenthe burden on respondents and NSIs and (ii) to collect only useful data of sufficient quality, collection of livestock statistics was made optional:
    -for Member States with fewer than a setnumber of animals;
    - for NUTS2 regions under another threshold;
    - for the statistics from the only survey on sheep and goats, for the annual regional statistics and for the second survey on cattle and on pigs (May/June);
    - for the single GIP forecast for sheep and goats and for the second forecast for pigs and for cattle.
  2. Non-EU countries may apply their national legislation on the coverageof slaughterhouses if it is not fully compatible with the EU legislation, either because it has yet to be improved (in line with the acquis communautaire) or because specific arrangements have been agreed. In any case,each non-EU country shouldinform Eurostat about the coverage of the statisticscollected.

2.3.Definition of animal categories: livestock statistics

  1. In order to maintain coherence with other statistics, the definition of piglets has been kept as animals with a live weight under 20kg. This is not the most relevant to pig farmingpractice, but no common limit could be found between Member States. Therefore the figures collected on this field may have to be corrected, depending on the national concepts.

2.4.Definition of animal categories: meat statistics, improvement of definitions

  1. Several changes were introduced by Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008. Previously the items were defined only by their name (e.g. calves), whereas the new legislation gives fuller definitions referring, for instance, to the age of animals. Depending on local meat production and tradepractices, this improvement may have generated some breaks in the series.
  2. Bulgaria: derogation. The breakdown between ‘calves’ (bovine animals aged 8 months or under)and ‘young cattle’ (bovine animals aged over 8 months but not over 12 months) wasnot provided for reference year 2009.
  3. Definition of bovine categories (Denmark, Germany, Cyprus). Both the weight and the number of head for 2009 and 2010 are significantly lower than the figures for 2007 and 2008.
    Now that the classification refers to age, animals previously classified as ‘bulls’ but aged under one year are counted as ‘young cattle’.

2.5.Definition of animal categories: meat statistics, changes in nomenclature

  1. The former category ‘calves’ has been split into ‘calves’ (bovine animals aged 8 months or under)and ‘young cattle’ (bovine animals aged over 8 months but not over 12 months). In order to preserve time series, a category ‘calves and young cattle’ has been introduced, covering the animals formerly called ‘calves’.
  2. Poultry have been added to the list of meat products to be surveyed. Previously data on them could be delivered on a voluntary basis. No formal definition of the coverage of such statistics can be provided.

2.6.Definition of animal categories: meat statistics, improvement of definitions

  1. Meat of young cattle is defined as meat of ‘bovine animals aged over 8 months but not over 12 months’, which may previously have been classified as meat of ‘calves’ or of ‘bulls’.

2.7.Definition of animal categories: meat statistics, new definitions

  1. \Poultry were not surveyed under the former legislation. Nevertheless a particularity needs to be highlighted in the definitions. "Chickens" are understood in their wide meaning as Gallus gallus animals and cover the cull animalsslaughtered for human consumption, usually called "boiling hens".

2.8.Derogations and regulatory exceptions

  1. For 2009 Germany and Bulgaria have been granted derogations to allow them to adapt their statistical system before fully implementing Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008. Germany has been granted a similar derogation for 2010, but only for statistics on sheep and goats (Decision 2010/323/EU[4]).
  2. In both countries the scope of slaughtering statistics from 2009 onwards broadly follows the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008.
  3. Regional data for Germany and the United Kingdomneed be provided only at NUTS level 1.
  4. Some statistics on livestock are optional for Member States with a small animal population, i.e. fewerthan 1.5 million head of bovine animals, fewer than 3 million head of pigs or fewer than 500000 head of sheep and goats. The countries concerned do not have to conduct livestock surveys in May/June (for cattle and pigs) or in November/December (for sheep and goats). GIP forecasts are due once a year instead of twice (for bovine animals and pigs) or not at all instead of once (for sheep and goats) but must cover a longer period for countries with a small animal population. Table2displays the different cases.

Table2: Deadlines for GIP forecast
by quarters (Q01 to Q04) and semesters (S01 and S02)by reference to delivery year N

3.Conclusions

  1. The information provided in this document should help data users to understand the changes in livestock and meat statistics between reference years 2008 and 2009 (and later in the cases ofBulgaria and Germany).

1

[1]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.

[2]Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 laying down specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin (OJ L 226, 25.6.2004, p. 22).

[3]Gentlemen's agreement on the collection of monthly information on "other slaughtering" adopted by the Working Group on Animal Production Statistics by written procedure on 25 May 2010.

[4]Commission Decision of 10 June 2010 granting a derogation from implementing Regulation (EC) No 1165/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning livestock and meat statistics with regard to Bulgaria and Germany, OJ L 145, 11.6.2010, p.15.