Inside Pigs
Pig market still under pressure from supply
The situation on the pig market is still not rosy, we are waiting for hopeful signals. The oversupply of fattening pigs is still weighing on the market and sales are far from smooth. There is also still a large oversupply in Germany.
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It remains quite a challenge to get fattening pigs placed, the supply is still very wide and sales are not running smoothly. The slaughter in week 3 was just under 5.000 heads behind last year. The slaughter weights, on the other hand, are considerably higher than last year. With an average weight of 101,9 kilos, the pigs are 1,5 kilos heavier than in the same period last year.
German Schweinestau
In Germany they are busy reducing the number of fattening pigs hanging above the market. However, the degree of speed in this is highly dependent on the slaughter capacity, which is not yet fully utilized by all pork processors due to the restrictions surrounding the corona virus. For example, Willms-Fleisch in Loxstedt slaughters at 85% of the usual capacity and Vion in Perleberg currently uses around 90% of the capacity.
The German piglet supply is stagnating and the import of piglets has also been adjusted downwards; since September, imports from the Netherlands and Denmark have been about 35.000 to 40.000 lower than before. According to the German pig farmers' association (ISN), the number of piglets is approximately 7% below the level at the beginning of 2020.
Prices move sideways
The German VEZG quotation also remains unchanged and remains for the 10e week in a row at €1,19 per kilo. The DCA quotations are also stable again this week, which means that the DCA Exchange Price 2.0 remains at €1,21 per kilo for slaughtered pigs and the price of live pigs is unchanged at €0,91.