Last week we headlined that the ice cream below pig prices was wafer thin. This week we can conclude that pig prices have actually fallen through the ice. The DCA Stock Price 2.0 is also not keeping it dry.
The pig market is starting to squeak and creak more and more. After a short period of stability, slaughterhouses are once again cutting pig prices. They feel forced to do this due to the extremely poor meat sales.
house prices
Since Thursday, Tönnies and Vion Germany have been using a Hauspreis that is 4 cents below the German VEZG quotation. This fell by €0,01 last week to €1,24 per kilo and will probably be further depreciated next week to the price level set by the large German slaughterhouses.
The downward spiral is prompted by the full cold stores. Buyers know that slaughterhouses are going up and keep dropping below asking prices. Sales of by-products in China are also coming under increasing pressure. Spain in particular therefore dumps a lot of cheap meat in Europe. Sales to Japan are fairly constant, but these are relatively small volumes.
Continued wide range
The pig supply is described as broad. Traders have been complaining for weeks that they are not getting the pigs placed, although the numbers themselves are comparable to other years. The reason for this lies in the relatively low slaughter numbers. German slaughterhouses in particular are keeping their foot off the gas and that is clearly noticeable.
In Germany, 838.000 pigs were slaughtered last week, which is 5% below last year's level, partly due to personnel problems in slaughterhouses. In the Netherlands, the slaughter figure is around 300.000, which is considerably less than in previous years. The POV therefore calls on slaughterhouses to step up their game so that slaughter weights do not increase too much. The average slaughter weight last week was 98,50 kilos.
All in all, there is a lot of pressure on pig prices and reductions are inevitable. The DCA Exchange Price 2.0 drops by 5 cents to €1,19 per kilo for slaughtered pigs. The price of live pigs drops by 4 cents to €0,90. This is the lowest level since this year.