Inside Pigs
Slaughter numbers falter in tense pig market
Calm on the pig market just won't return. Although the quotations remained unchanged this week, slaughterhouses continue to emphasize that meat sales are not going anywhere. Will there be new reductions?
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This week 2 things have become clear. So has the Polish European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski indicated that it considered it unwise to extinguish the crisis on the pig market by setting up a support package. It has also become clear that China is actually importing less meat Chinese import figures September shows a significant decline. American exporters can switch to Mexico, but European exporters are now hitting walls. Ham sales in particular are currently extremely slow.
The market is bad and the word 'crisis' is not an exaggeration. Especially because the situation is hopeless. There are no signals that the situation will improve in the short term. Meanwhile, pork supply is increasing seasonally, while slaughterhouses are struggling to have enough people on the slaughter lines. An awkward set of circumstances.
Slaughter figures are lagging behind, supply is increasing
The slaughter figure in the Netherlands remained below the 300.000 mark last week. Other years we were often (well) above that during this period of the year. It is therefore not surprising that slaughter weights are increasing slowly. Last week the average slaughter weight increased to 99,10 kilos. This is the highest level since mid-June. In Germany, the slaughter figure remained at 836.323, which is also low.
Slaughterhouses are struggling with the large supply on the one hand, with traders in the Netherlands indicating that there is certainly a willingness to take in as many pigs as possible. The other side of the coin is that meat sales are poor and the cold stores are full. There are sounds from the meat world that we are not yet at the bottom, although there is also a bit of mood-making involved.
Unchanged maximum achievable
The German VEZG quotation remained stable this week at €1,20 per kilo. In the Netherlands, the DCA Exchange Price 2.0 for next week can remain at €1,19 for slaughtered pigs and the price of live pigs at €0,90 per kilo. Based on the dire market situation, unchanged is currently the maximum achievable. Further reductions cannot be ruled out.
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