Now that the Christmas demand has finally dropped, the pig market faces difficult hurdles. Although this situation was foreseen, there is still unrest at the moment. Can prices hold up is the concern of the market. Slaughterhouses sometimes create quite a mood.
The week between Christmas and New Year is traditionally the most difficult to place pigs, just like the first week of the new year. That is no different now, although the holidays mainly fall on weekends. The meat industry is shifting down a few gears these weeks, partly because migrant workers want to celebrate Christmas in their home country. In short: The capillary market forces will be considerably disrupted in the next two weeks.
Many pigs have been slaughtered in recent weeks. Also last week with approximately 330.000 pigs. The average slaughter weights were well under 100 kilos, in other years this was sometimes much higher. The supply therefore does not overflow. Yet traders will not get everything posted next week, although that is nothing more than a logical phenomenon. This situation will also apply in other European countries.
Corona wave in China
Danish Crown has taken the opportunity to provide the pig price in its own country with a significant correction. With this, the slaughterhouse company sets the tone. Slaughterhouses in the Netherlands also sometimes make a lot of noise. The pig price is said to be too competitive now that meat sales are at a standstill. Not only in Europe, sales to China - which still picked up considerably in the autumn - have also come to a standstill. This is partly due to the loss of demand for the Chinese New Year.
In addition, the rapidly rising corona infections are slowing down China's need for pork. Now that the zero-covid policy has been abandoned due to popular uprisings, the virus is spreading mercilessly, with all its consequences. This will not do any good to the consumption of pork. Pig prices in China have corrected sharply in recent weeks.
DCA Scholarship Award
The German pork price enters the new year without any damage. The VEZG quotation remained at €2 this week and will not be quoted next week, unlike in the Netherlands. Based on the specifications, the DCA Exchange Price 2.0 remains at €1,92 per kilo for slaughtered pigs. The price of live pigs remains at €1,51 per kilo. It remains to be seen whether slaughterhouses will also end the year in a stable manner.
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