Export pressure dominates the broiler market

Poultry meat prices in Northern Europe are under pressure. The price decline is mainly driven by supply. Demand remains strong, but a lot of meat is also being imported. The VCN quotation has been taking a step down each week for the past two weeks. The average price of slaughter chickens was still €1.10 per kilo in week 13. In week 15, the price had fallen to €1.08 per kilo. Pressure on prices comes mainly from the supply side of the market. It is heard in the market that demand for chicken meat is clearly on the rise, as is usual in spring. However, this is offset by a strong supply, especially of chicken meat. Imports of cheap chicken meat have already been meeting the extra demand well for some time, enabling slaughterhouses to push prices down. Part of that competition comes from Poland. Northern European prices remain relatively stable. This can be seen in the Belgian prices, which are the most representative of the Northern European market, since the Netherlands does not report data to the European Union. Polish prices are still well below this level. However, because sales to Northern Europe are becoming stronger, Polish prices are beginning to rise. As a result, the Eastern European country is slowly but surely once again exerting pressure on chicken prices in the Netherlands. In addition, poultry meat imports from Brazil have increased sharply. Due to the extreme shortage last year, the European chicken meat sector has been relying more heavily on imports. In the first two months of this year, the European Union imported significantly more poultry meat from the South American country than a year earlier. In January, the European Union imported 24% (27,400 tons) more from Brazil than the year before. In February, imports even came to 30,100 tons, 46.3% above last year's level. Free-traded chickens fall more sharply That the market is ample is even more clearly reflected in the free market. The price of free-traded chickens has fallen even more sharply, as shown by the Barneveld quotation. Where slaughterhouse prices fell by 2 cents, free market prices decreased by 3 cents per kilo. The difference in favor of the free market is still the result of higher prices in Belgium. Prices also fell there by 3 cents, as shown by the Deinze quotation. This once again shows that Dutch free market prices are more closely linked to Belgian prices than to the prices reported by Dutch slaughterhouses.