Throughout 2018, France still proved to be the EU country with the highest amount of cattle units (18.5 million), though bovines declined in number: -2.1%, compared to 2017. The same goes for Germany, whose bovine livestock amounted to 11.9 million, therefore decreasing by over 2%. Flicking through data, provided by the European Institute of Statistics, we observe that such negative trend has been affecting the livestock and farming industry all around Europe: in fact, the United Kingdom and Ireland dropped by 1.1%, while Italy decreased by 0.6%. The only EU countries that achieved a positive performance have been Spain and Poland, whose cattle provisions reached respectively 6.1 and 6.5 million units, that is, +0.8% and +1.7%. Overall, in 2018 the European Union lost 1.5% of their bovine livestock (that is, 87.5 million units); conversely, wrapped up Eurostat, only a non-EU country, namely Turkey, has been enjoying a considerable boost, as bovines reached 17.2 million units (+7%).
European Union cattle units drop by 1.5% in 2018, as France, Germany and Great Britain slow down
