Pigs traded on contract are continuing to rise in value with the DAPP improving once again to 142.05p and the Tulip base price now almost 2p ahead of this.

Pigmeat prices remain dominated by the supermarket sector and some of the smaller wholesalers are still complaining that high street sales are slow with indifferent demand.

As a result there were some fairly wide variations in spot bacon quotes with reports in the region of 142p for bacon being fairly commonplace and premiums available in places for either lighter weights or gilts with some hard nosed buyers looking for soft sellers at below 140p earlier in the day, but few takers.

Unfortunately recent increases in the strength of the pound are allowing imports to trickle over at slightly less money and are also having a negative effect on cull sow quotes, although by Friday evening the euro had recovered to 90.1p.

European Union mainland cull sow prices are also reported to be drifting downwards and this saw a slight reduction in United Kingdom export abattoir cull sow quotes of between 1–2p/kg.

Cull availability remains tight however and as a result no need to sell below 100p with modest premiums of 2–4p available for larger loads.

Weaner prices on the other hand continue to head skywards, although one or two buyers have not been prepared to go with the flow, so prices could be heading for something of a plateau.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board 30kg ex-farm weaner average now stands at 353.14/head, but this sector remains a seller’s market and even at this level providing feed prices remains static, there should be a useful margin for both buyers and sellers.