The quotations show an unchanged level in Germany, Spain, France, Ireland and Austria. In the Netherlands, the price went up by 1 cent, thus approaching the German price level. Parts suitable for barbeque made the Dutch meat business earn good extra amounts. Waiting for the longed-for price increase finally is over in Denmark, where the price noticeably increased by near to 3 corrected cents.

The price increase was even clearer in Sweden. As a result of changes in currency exchange rates, the price proves to be weak in Great Britain. Steps to be taken for price-support reasons such as export allowances, which appear to be questionable from the ISN’s point of view, have been defeated most recently by the EU agricultural commissioner.

There are a lot of discussions about the latest press releases with regard to the Mexican swine flu outbreaks and the impact they have on the European pig market. According to what is reported by the agricultural supervisory authority in Moscow, Russia has already banned imports of pigs and raw pork from Mexico and several US federal states. Since the dollar went up in value because of the fear of swine flu, pork exports from the EU might be given positive impetus. Experts do not expect the consumers’ demand for pork to take a nosedive.

Trend: The quantities of live pigs existing can be marketed very well in Europe. With one day off on May 1st bank holiday and the Dutch “Koniginnedag” (to honour the Queen), prices are expected to stay unchanged, at least.

Explanation
¹corrected quotation: The official Quotations of the different countries are corrected, so that each quotation has the same base (conditions).
base: 56 per cent lean-meat-percentage; farm-gate-price; 79 per cent killing-out-percentage, without value-added-tax (VAT)