Genesus Global Market Report: Hog Market in Europe and Spain

Since last report, from August to date the price has fallen by 0.252 € / Kg, to 1,183 € / kg live weight. While weights have risen to 110.17 kg, is 5.83 kg more than then.
calendar icon 16 October 2017
clock icon 4 minute read

Mercedes Vega, General Director in Spain, Italy & Portugal
[email protected]

This is a consequence of the strong supply that has been. After a record hot summer, now with temperatures back to normal, we see all over Spain that animals are gaining more weight, and putting themselves at levels of last May.

Compared with the situation a year ago, the average weight in this week was 105.77, that is 4.4 kilos less than this year and with a value of 1.262 € / kg live weight, ie 0.079 higher.

This setback is also happening in the rest of the EU, especially in Germany. The two major European producers, Germany and Spain, started the summer almost at the same price, around 1.40 € / kg live weight. Germans started to lose traction in price in July, while in Spain the strong declines have been happening in the last 7 weeks. Both countries are in the same price range at this point.

The packing plants are waiting for more price declining. They are recovering margins, but the cold storage continues to be almost empty. At these prices it is not profitable to freeze pork.

As for the EU inventory, to May 2017 is 10,759,000 sows with a total census of 131,737,000 pigs. In general, the breeding herd has increased by 1.4% throughout the European Union. Spain has increased its breeding herd by 6% (2,516,000 sows).

Although we see these increases in censuses, pork consumption in the EU is not growing.
Per-capita pork consumption has fallen to 31.7 kg / year in 2016, and forecasts for 2017 point to a slight recovery in consumption, to 31.8 kg / year.

A change of trend that we see in some sectors of production in Spain is to make meat of higher quality, introducing the Duroc line in its production. This trend places the consumer demand of pork to the rise.

ZAFRA SHOW

As every year, September 28 to October 4, the Zafra International Livestock Show is held. This is specially a show for exhibit and promote the traditional Spanish Iberian Pig.

On it, we attended the "Inga Food VII Iberian pig Technical Conference". There were exhibits from all sectors related to the world of the Iberian. Each year we see attendance increase; this edition exceeded 400 attendees.

The topics discussed were interesting. Among others, the importance of investing in genetics in the Iberian race with its "Genetic Program of the Castúa".

The conclusion.

It is a sector in full development and professionalization. In the last years Spain gain a good position on the international markets, with the meat of the Iberian pig in purity and its crossings with Duroc, exporting a "meat of excellent quality”, especially on the Asian market

Genesus, meanwhile, has been selecting Duroc animals from lines that fulfill all the essential characteristics to obtain a product of high quality and maximum efficiency in the crossbreeding programs with the Iberian sows. These animals have been exported to Spain from Canada for several years, obtaining excellent results for the producer, the packer and the final consumer.

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