Analysis Pigs
Breathing space is particularly beneficial for slaughterhouses
The long Easter weekend is good for Dutch slaughterhouses. The search for pigs has cost a lot of energy in recent weeks. Now that the supply is temporarily less tight, they can catch their breath. There is certainly still room for improvement in the price of pigs in the long term.
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The effect of the stopper regulation is becoming increasingly visible in the slaughter figures. With 'only' 265.000 slaughters last week, more than 10% of the slaughter capacity remains underutilized. And the bottom has not yet been reached. Seasonally, the pig supply will dry up further towards the summer months. In addition, pig farmers who are retiring are not always fully operational.
Easter
However, the reduced Dutch pig supply is less of a pressing problem for next week. Because there is no slaughtering on Easter Monday, the slaughter hooks will be full. Especially since the pigs with an average slaughter weight of 101 kilos last week were still on the heavy side. This week too, there were enough pigs and the slaughtering activities were somewhat lower. This is also the case in Germany, where there is no more slaughtering on Good Friday. Nevertheless, German slaughterhouses were sometimes still looking for extra supply this week. So the supply there is not much either.
meat market
In the run-up to Easter, slaughterhouses have seen good meat sales within Europe. This is partly due to the high prices of beef and chicken. In addition, Eastern European demand is better than last year, because food inflation has subsided somewhat there. Pork stocks are generally limited. Outside Europe, sales volumes are in line with last year, as indicated and this is also evident from figures from Eurostat.
Adempauze
Historically, Easter is often followed by a flat period in price development. Towards the summer holidays, there is sometimes a revival. The moment of the increase is difficult to predict, but the pig price has not yet reached the ceiling after the spring revival. This flattening can be seen as a breathing space, which is particularly convenient for slaughterhouses.
Based on the data, the DCA Beursprijs 2.0 remains the same at €1,98 per kilo for slaughtered pigs. The price of live pigs remains at €1,55 per kilo.
Click here for an explanation from DCA Market Intelligence on the listing.