Pork and poultry meat are the most popular meat varieties in Germany. Out of the total meat consumption of around 60 kg in 2013, 38 kg account for pork and 12 kg account for poultry meat. Since 1999 the pork production has increased by almost 26 percent. Poultry meat production even doubled in the same period. In the last eight years, Germany turned from a net importer to an important net exporter country for both meats. With a quantity of well above 2 million tons annually Germany is currently the largest pork exporter worldwide. The 'side-effects' of this development – regional environmental problems and animal welfare concerns – are increasingly criticised in the public debate and have arrived in the policy arena.

Against his background we address the following questions:

• How do economic and political framework conditions affect the competitiveness of the farms?
• What are drivers of the current development? How did farm-level costs and returns develop in the past?
• How does the structural change affect German pig and poultry farms?
• What are the costs (and returns) associated with production systems which are more environmental friendly and provide higher levels of animal welfare?
• How can pig and poultry farms reduce the negative impacts on environment and animal welfare without losing their competitiveness?

Because of the dependence on exports, these questions can only be answered in an international context. Therefore, a large part of the work takes place in the context of the agri benchmark Pig Network, which is coordinated by the institute. Furthermore, the institute is an active member of the international InterPIG network.