Analysis Pigs
Look, look, don't buy at the pig market
The pig market is preparing for the holidays. A generally busy period for pork sales, but for the time being the pace in the market is quite calm. This means that the upward pressure on pig prices has not yet materialized.
Read this article?
Become a subscriber and get instant access
Choose the subscription that suits you
Meanwhile, pork prices have been stable at historically high levels for almost two months. Slaughterhouses also emphasize this, but fattening pig farmers hope for more. Especially now that piglet costs are rising quite quickly.
December is now just around the corner, but hopes for a revival in the market are diminishing by the week. Time is now running out with four full weeks in the run-up to Christmas, with slaughter activity set to drop in the final week. The demand for pork is not bad, but certainly not wild either. There is a lot of information, especially about the more luxurious parts such as hams and tenderloins. It is true that many supermarket organizations are looking, but often do not buy yet. There is a lot of information about the available volumes without doing business. It is probably still difficult for retailers to accurately estimate consumer demand.
Export demand outside Europe remains subdued, although volumes for the Chinese New Year, which takes place on Saturday, February 10, 2024, should be shipped during this period. Not much is expected this year, because Europe has a price disadvantage compared to Brazil and the United States.
Wider German offering
The slaughter figure remains below the level of 300.000 for the time being, although we are very close to this. Apart from that, these are perfectly manageable numbers for slaughterhouses. In other years we were already above this limit at this time of year. In Germany, the slaughter figure has risen quite rapidly in recent weeks to well over 770.000. A number of broken slaughter weeks in October and earlier in November may play a role in this. The higher slaughter numbers in Germany are of course not conducive to an increase in the pig price and so the Dutch market also feels a bit resigned at the moment. The expectation was that the Netherlands would be able to follow suit in the event of a German increase.
This means that the DCA Scholarship Award is once again taking a back seat. Based on the statements, the DCA Exchange Price 2.0 remains the same at €2,08 per kilo for the slaughtered pigs. The price of live pigs also remains unchanged at €1,65 per kilo.
Click here for an explanation of the listing.