Broiler market remains moderately positive

The Dutch poultry meat market is still drifting along. Supply and demand remain balanced, which means prices are not yet managing to rise strongly. Still, there are once again cautiously positive signals. In the Dutch poultry market, supply and demand are currently reasonably in balance. Sales of chicken remain at a sufficient level, but are not strong enough to force a clear price increase. Meanwhile, domestic supply is also not abundant. In the Dutch poultry market, the difference between contract prices and the free market remains clearly visible. The VCN quotation remains unchanged at €1.03 per kilo. The market has not moved since week 22. The Barneveld quotation is meanwhile at €1.10 per kilo. The price remains unchanged for the second week in a row. This confirms the picture that the free market is pulling more strongly on available slaughter chickens, while the prices paid by slaughterhouses within fixed agreements are not yet following suit. This is due to a somewhat tighter market than a few weeks ago. Still, the stronger shortage remains relatively limited. On the free market, extra chickens are being bought in the Netherlands to fill some gaps, but actually raising quotations to buy in more chickens structurally is still barely happening. Prices are being raised in our southern neighboring country. The Belgian Deinze quotation increased by 2 cents to €1.15 per kilo. This could lead to stronger demand for Dutch chickens in the coming weeks. In particular, the Barneveld free market quotation generally responds to such increases, because more Dutch chickens are sold in Belgium. Imports remain leading On the other hand, room for higher prices is still limited by the ample supply of poultry meat on the European market. In particular, cheap meat from Poland and Ukraine means that Dutch slaughterhouses find it difficult to pass on higher purchase prices for live chickens to their customers. As long as it remains cheaper to export cheaper meat, a bidding war among chicken slaughterhouses remains an unrealistic scenario.