Contrary to expectations of various market participants, the usual January weakness of prices failed to appear in Europe this time. In most of the European countries, prices are reported to have even increased in the last week of January and the first week of February. The prices in France and Sweden alone remained on an unchanged level, while the quotation fell in Great Britain.

The price increases reported from Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Austria and Germany are attributed to the ongoing winter weather as much as to high demand for pork. Stating five cents, Austria achieved the leading plus in quotations. About 85 per cent of the quantities needed of slaughter pigs are on offer in Austrian currently. The slower 2-cents’ increase in Spain is attributed to the worse price margin between abattoirs and food retailing.

Trend: There is a slight decrease in the quantity of pigs for slaughter on offer. However, the marketing is going on smoothly and prospects are friendly in the slaughter pig market. Thus, the prices are expected to stay steady at least for this week.

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)