When will the Northern European pig market turn?

In the pig markets, the familiar trends continue for the time being. The Northern European market is stable, while the Southern European pig prices are still under pressure. However, the expectation is that the significant rise in the prices of cuts in Northern Europe will lead to a small price increase. The average carcass price of pigs has increased by 3.54 cents per kilogram. This is the largest increase since week 15, when the carcass price rose by 8.78 cents per kilogram. The better valuation is a result of an average price increase of hams by 8 cents, necks by 7 cents, and shoulders by 4 cents. This forms a correction to the very sharp decline since the summer. The pig market remains stable The pig market is still stable, but the expectation is that the market will begin to move again in the short term. Not only the better meat prices contribute to this. The pig market is also slowly but surely tightening. The Dutch pig backlog is nearly resolved, which will likely lead to some competition to fill the slaughter hooks. In addition, it is expected that the effects of the Lbv+ scheme will become visible in the short term in the Netherlands. As a result, the DCA Market Price recorded an increase of 1 cent. The slaughterhouses are currently not willing to follow this in their stated benchmarks. The slaughter prices of two of the three major Northern European slaughterhouses remain unchanged. Vion and Tönnies have not adjusted their prices this year yet. It is noteworthy that Danish Crown has significantly lowered its prices. The Danish company has adjusted the price down by 4 cents: from €1.25 per kilogram to €1.21. The price decrease is due to a fairly ample European pig supply. Price in France and Italy under pressure Looking at Southern Europe, we see that Spanish prices remain stable at a level of €1 per kilogram. The country continues to market a lot of extra meat within the European Union and must achieve very low production costs for a competitive price. This is still causing price pressure particularly in the nearby France and Italy. In the cattle market of Modena, the price dropped again by 2 cents this week. In the French market, the price is stable, but the week before there was still a decrease of 1.2 cents. These countries are suffering from an oversupply of pigs, while the slaughter weights are higher than one might expect. An important restraining factor is that the relatively high slaughter prices make both countries not very competitive in exporting to third countries. The competition from the Northern European market, particularly the Netherlands and Denmark, remains simply too strong due to the significant price differences.