Dying craft? The number of butcher shops in Saxony is falling significantly

In Saxony, the number of butcher shops has decreased significantly within ten years.

As the regional directorate of the Federal Employment Agency announced upon request, 287 companies with a focus on meat processing were registered last year. Ten years ago there were 438. The number of butcher shops with a focus on sales also fell by a third to 206 businesses.

In Saxony, 6,338 women and men were employed in jobs producing and selling meat in the previous year. According to the Federal Agency, there were 1,577 fewer people than ten years ago.

Tense situation on the training market

The situation on the training market is particularly problematic. As of this August, 89 vocational training positions for butchers were reported in the Free State, of which 34 were still unfilled. In the specialist sales/butcher shop sector, 81 of 209 apprenticeship positions were still unfilled.

It is true that the number of butcher shops has fallen in the last ten years, said the managing director of the state association for the Saxon butcher trade, Lars Bubnick, when asked. “But that doesn’t mean that the butchery trade is dying out.”

Guild association: problems with succession and cost pressure

The reasons for operational closures are therefore complex. “In most cases it is due to a lack of successors to continue running the business or the increasing shortage of workers,” explained Bubnick. But rising costs, especially since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, are also a possible cause.

According to Bubnick's information, among other things, beef prices have never been higher. The biggest challenge is the personnel situation in the companies, combined with the currently rising costs. “Unfortunately, our companies do not benefit from the industrial electricity price - only industrial companies do.” Working profitably here is very difficult. Meat consumption per capita in Germany has recently increased again to just under 55 kilograms.