Farm Animals

Pig Welfare and Welfare Benchmarking Advances 2026

Welfare benchmarking - comparing farms against best practice metrics - is transforming industry standards and creating competitive welfare improvement.

Key Facts

Welfare Quality protocols provide standardised pig welfare assessment across Europe
Benchmarking programs allow farms to compare their performance anonymously against peers
Farms in benchmarking programs improve welfare scores by an average of 15% in 3 years
Processor-driven benchmarking is increasingly linked to supply chain contracts
Digital welfare monitoring tools enable continuous benchmarking rather than snapshot audits

Welfare Considerations

Welfare benchmarking drives continuous improvement by making farm performance visible and comparable. Industry adoption of robust benchmarking accelerates welfare progress.

What You Can Do

Support welfare benchmarking requirements in pig supply chain contracts
Advocate for transparent, comparable welfare metrics in certification
Choose pork from supply chains with active benchmarking programs