Pig market gives way under quarantine obligation

The big challenge at the moment is to keep the engine running now that many people in our country are infected and are therefore in quarantine. Unconfirmed reports are going through the market that Vion was missing around 27 employees on Thursday, January 250. The meat company does not have a reserve bank. Massive staff shortages are also being reported in Germany. The quarantine rules are disruptive, not only here in Northwestern Europe, but worldwide. Slaughterhouses in Australia and the United States are struggling with the same problem.

In Germany, the shortage of personnel is clearly visible in the slaughter figures. Last week, 793.000 pigs were slaughtered, which is extremely low for a full slaughter week. In the Netherlands, 311.000 pigs were hanging on hooks; not excessively little. Deboning pigs, however, is point two. This seems to happen much less in Europe, although unfortunately this cannot be expressed in figures. This does not immediately result in shortages on the meat market, because stocks have been high for some time and can be drawn from. In addition, meat demand is currently calm, which suits this time of year.

a lot of uncertainty 
If this situation continues for longer, shortages of deboned products may arise. All in all, the situation creates a lot of uncertainty, although carcass part prices have now reached a bottom. In many countries, corona measures are being relaxed or even released, such as in Denmark. This is beneficial (in the long term) for pork sales, although it would be naive to expect miracles from this immediately.

There is currently no normal rhythm in the meat sector. This also affects the sale of live pigs, which is described as ample by the trade. The price pressure that emerged in recent weeks has now faded into the background. This means that the DCA Exchange Price 2.0 for slaughtered pigs remains at €1,18 per kilo and the price of live pigs remains at €0,89. 

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