LFD Holding

The LFD Holding is a German piglet production concern based in Genthin in Saxony-Anhalt. It is Germany's largest piglet producer and market leader. The company was founded in 2004 by Dutchman Adrianus Straathof as Straathof Holding GmbH. In 2014, it was renamed LFD Holding GmbH (LFD standing for Landwirtschaftliche Ferkelzucht Deutschland). In 2020, the company was sold to the Swiss-based investment and holding company Terra Grundwerte AG. The company has been repeatedly criticized for animal cruelty. In 2021, a major fire completely destroyed the piglet production plant in Alt Tellin. Adrianus Straathof began raising pigs in the Netherlands in 1973. In 2001, Dutch authorities took legal and police action against the farm due to animal cruelty and overcrowding in the stables. After that, Adrianus Straathof expanded to eastern Germany. At the end of 2004, Adrianus Straathof founded Straathof Holding GmbH based in Gladau as an umbrella organization for his various plants in Germany. The Straathof Holding GmbH also opened plants in Hungary. The company became a pioneer of large-scale animal husbandry in Germany and one of the largest piglet producers in Europe. In doing so, the company repeatedly violated legal requirements and was legally convicted. At the Gladau plant alone, authorities imposed fines amounting to €2.1 million from 2005 to 2014. Subsequently, the company was subjected to protests from local residents, environmentalists as well as animal rights activists. After the investigative TV magazine Report Mainz reported on animal cruelty in December 2013 with video recordings by the animal rights organization Animal Rights Watch, a three-day raid by police and the public prosecutor's office took place at the Gladau site in 2014. As a result, in November 2014, the responsible district of Jerichower Land issued a nationwide ban on pig keeping and care against Adrianus Straathof, which was unique on this scale in Germany. After that, the concern was renamed LFD Holding GmbH on December 22, 2014.