Extreme heat hits the European pork market

As meat prices at slaughterhouses have remained stable, piglet prices have continued to collapse, taking the Best Piglet Price to €30 in week 27. The main problem is the extreme heat wave in Europe. Thousands of northern piglets are stuck at their point of origin due to strict animal welfare, creating a massive oversupply in the Netherlands and Denmark.This means the market can no longer rely on the usual price recovery that used to happen at the end of summer. The market has changed because pork is losing popularity in the European Union, inflation is high, and trade wars, such as China's 2025 tariffs on European meat, continue to affect exports. This keeps the industry in a downward trend.There is a big gap between stabilizing slaughter prices and the inconsistent piglet market. The DCA EU-5 Piglet Price Index suffered a €2.48 loss, dropping to €36.27 per piglet. The DCA EU-6 Pork Carcass Price Index flatlined at €1.50 per kg, signaling that slaughterhouses are pausing to assess whether price reductions are easing oversupply.PigletsThe piglet trade is very weak, and buyers have all the power. Prices have continued to drop, pushing further down, with the DCA Best Piglet Price nearly back to where it started the year.The heatwave is the main reason for this drop. Because piglets cannot be shipped to Spain, they are being dumped back onto local markets in the Netherlands and Denmark. Local farmers do not want to buy them because their own profits are too low.While Germany managed to keep its price steady at €40.00 after last week's big drop, its neighbors took a heavy hit. The Dutch price fell by €2.50 to €32.00, and the Danish price dropped by €3.27 to €32.60. Even Spain, which usually has the highest prices, fell below the forty-euro mark, losing €3.75 to settle at €38.75.PorkEven though the main pork index stayed at €1.50, different countries are seeing very different results as they fight long-term changes in shopping habits and the economy.This shows that people in the EU are eating less pork. This means consumer demand is dropping faster than farmers can reduce their pig numbers. This imbalance means that whenever exports get blocked, local prices crash.This week, the French quotation increased slightly by €0.03 to €1.47 per kg. On the other hand, Danish Crown in Denmark cut its price by another €0.05 to a very low €1.14 per kg to deal with excess meat. Poland also continued to slide, ending at €1.47 per kg. Until the weather cools down and transport routes to southern Europe open, or until local shoppers start buying much more meat, the entire sector will remain under heavy strain, and prices will stay very low.