Pressure on pig prices unprecedented

It does not look like the uncertainty and unrest in the pig market will fade into the background any time soon. In fact, the situation is visibly deteriorating. The supply in Europe is so large that traders do not know how to get rid of the pigs. And that has been the case for weeks. Not often in the past has the supply been so consistently large for so long.

Huge slaughter backlog 
The large slaughter backlog in Germany is the culprit. Also in the past week there were only slightly more than 800.000 pigs on the hook. That is far too little to pull the market out of the doldrums. The problems are now also spreading to the south of Germany. The average slaughter weights in our eastern neighbors have exceeded 100 kilos. Even in neighboring countries, such as Denmark, slaughterhouses are not in control of the supply. In the Netherlands, slaughterhouses are slowing down, but for the time being this is no more than a well-known drop in the ocean.

Export stop for Denmark 
In addition to the great supply pressure for fattening pigs, meat sales are also not going well. The pressure on the European meat market has increased further now that Danish Crown has been denied access to the Chinese sales market due to corona. A huge downer that led to a major price correction. In addition, the demand for meat parts is being slowed down by the lockdowns in many countries. Higher retail sales may partly compensate for this, but the question is for how long. All in all, there is a lot of tension in the market.

Despite the pressure, pig prices have been able to hold their ground in recent weeks, albeit at significantly lower levels than we have been used to in recent years. We have now come to a time when the pressure is becoming too much. This concerns pretty much all of Europe. In addition to Denmark, we also see declining quotations in Spain and Belgium.

DCA Exchange price unchanged for the time being 
In the Netherlands, some slaughterhouses had already penciled in a reduction last Wednesday, but did not implement this due to pressure from the market. However, many traders think the reductions will probably not happen again next week. Slaughterhouses create a lot of mood. The DCA Exchange Price 2.0 remains provisionally the same at €1,34 per kilo. The price of live pigs at €1,04 per kilo. The quotation will be definitively determined on Wednesday evening, November 11 at 20.00 p.m. 

View the latest listing here.