DCA Market Intelligence publishes a weekly benchmark price for Piglets. The specifications of this benchmark price are described below.
A standard piglet weighing 25 kilograms, produced on a sow farm that complies with the requirements and descriptions outlined in Chapter 2 of the Dutch 'Animal Welfare Act' (De Wet Dieren), effective as of July 1, 2014.
| Weaning age | at least 3 weeks |
| Surface per piglet | a minimum of 0.3m2 |
| Additional requirements | raised on a full plastic grid, incl. 2 vaccinations (mycoplasma and circo), no visible deviations |
At least 1 piglet.
Delivery in that week from Sunday 00:00 CET to Saturday 23:59 CET.
Collected from a Dutch sow farm.
EUR/piglet.
This benchmark specification follows the DCA General Methodology, which outlines processes including data hierarchy, validation, use of expert judgement, and governance. The benchmark is administered in accordance with DCA’s internal compliance framework. Operational validation and weighting techniques are applied in line with the DCA General Methodology. Detailed controls are not disclosed publicly for confidentiality and data integrity reasons.
The DCA BestPigletPrice applies to piglets of Dutch origin. This benchmark is produced for and applies to transactions executed within the Netherlands.
The price that the trader has paid or is willing to pay on the day of input. The price excluding VAT. The price is rounded to the nearest €0.50, in line with the Public Methodology Summary. Surcharges and discounts can be applied on the price of the standard piglet according to the information below.
| - €1.00 per kg |
| - €1.00 per kg |
| + €1.00 per kg |
| + €0.60 per kg |
Advised fixed costs as of Jan 1, 2026: average €2,50 per piglet, to withhold from the pig breeder.
A plus (+) is included for:
Free negotiable up to 10% on average for the following factors:
A minus (-) is recorded for:
The order of settlement is fixed and as follows:
Prices are based on validated inputs submitted by professional market participants within the defined assessment window. Submissions are reviewed for accuracy and consistency. Statistical checks are applied to identify outliers using a Standard Deviation Range (SDR); observations outside the SDR acceptance band are excluded from the calculation, while all submissions remain recorded in DCA’s internal Price Reporting System for traceability.
Where the initial outlier screening would result in a dataset that may be insufficient or non-representative, DCA applies its robustness approach by reassessing the acceptance band before finalising the dataset.
After the exclusion process is completed, the weekly piglet price is calculated as the arithmetic mean of all remaining valid submissions. No volume weighting is applied, as contributors do not submit volumes, and no contributor category receives an additional weighting. The resulting price is rounded to the nearest whole eurocent and published.
If, for any reason, the described procedure cannot be applied due to insufficient data, non-representative inputs, or operational disruption, DCA may apply a documented fallback approach or may decide not to publish a value for that week, providing an explanation.
Price input is collected on Monday from 07:00 until 15:00 CET. The benchmark price is published on Monday at 18:00 CET. Contributors log into the Price Reporting System of DCA Market Intelligence, enter their price, and optionally provide comments. On Monday at 10:00 CET, a reminder will be sent to those contributors who have not yet entered a price. A group of insiders is contacted by a DCA price reporter and asked for an indication of the market. In the event of a public holiday, the collection and publication schedule follows the Public Holiday Schedule published on the DCA platform.
Any questions or complaints regarding this benchmark may be submitted to DCA Market Intelligence via pra@dcami.com, in line with the DCA Complaints and Appeals Procedure (see Public Methodology Summary).
© DCA Market Intelligence B.V. All rights reserved.
Version: February 2026