While the major EU pig producers seem to have been “hibernating” for about eight weeks’ some agitation is being observed in neighbouring countries. Germany's Schweine.net market monitoring service says prices in Sweden and Italy are noticeably fell at the end of the Christmas period. Whereas the Eastern European market – and more so in Poland and the Czech Republic – the market has been on an up-swing for a number of weeks. These countries are on target to take the lead in the EU, and more so since the re-opening of the Russian market for Polish meat and falling pig numbers across Eastern Europe.

Important support

Against this background, exports towards Eastern Europe are becoming very important for the Western European trade. Danish reports suggest that exports to third countries are holding up and remaining comparably steady. This has brought welcome relief to Denmark's pig industry in light of Australia's bid to close pigmeat imports - which has been overruled. Danish exports towards Australia have increased considerably during the past years and any such move would have had dire impact on trade here.

Trend: Prices are expected to remain steady and then develop positively. However, much depends on contraction of supplies and sustained export markets to third countries .

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