Piglet prices continue to fall, exports break records

We don't have to spend many words this week on the difficult piglet trade. Fattening pig farmers are and remain reluctant to impose new flocks, the continuously declining quotations also invite this. This week the DCA BestPigletPrice has again fallen quite sharply, by €2,50 to €55 per piglet.

German market
We see a mixed picture in neighboring countries. The German VEZG piglet quotation has now stabilized at €73,50 and is therefore considerably higher than here in the Netherlands. The Danish piglet quotation is falling again after having stabilized last week. This is probably related to the weak export to Germany, where many piglets from the Scandinavian country go. The grain harvest in Germany may be related to this, which means that the mixed farms have slightly different priorities. 

(Depth) records
Dutch piglet exports to Germany fell sharply in week 28, according to the most recent figures from RVO. In that week, only 41.888 piglets crossed the German border. Only in the last week of 2023 was the number even lower, but that was a broken week. Remarkably, the piglet export figure to Spain rose a week earlier (week 27) to a record with 55.427 piglets. Never before have weekly figures been so high. Moreover, the export figures to Spain in recent weeks exceeded the numbers exported to Germany twice, something that has never happened before. 

The above suggests that Spanish demand is very strong, but the market does not experience it that way. This is partly because the Spanish integrations are offering a lot in return. Sales figures to Spain will probably decline in the near future, as is seasonal practice.

Nevertheless, it is striking that Dutch piglet exports to Spain and Germany, the two largest sales markets respectively, have shown such a diverse picture for a short time.  

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