The decreases in Spain, Germany, Denmark, France, Austria and Britain were by 1-3 cents but still not as clear as in the previous week. In some other countries, prices remained stable, for example in the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland.

The range of slaughtering pigs is declining in most European countries. The main reason is the continued hot temperature that results in poorer daily weight gain. Nevertheless, the demand side in many countries could once again push through their demands for lower purchase prices, as the meat sales are suffering from the heat wave. In many countries, declining slaughter weights are reported.

In Austria, the widening price gap with Germany and the favourable properties of German abattoirs to common export markets are the main reasons given for the price drop. In Spain, the price decrease is founded due to the insufficient margin at the abattoirs, and therefore they apply pressure on the price. But the situation between supply and demand is described as balanced in Spain.

Trend: With the continued high summer temperatures, the available supplies of slaughtering pigs in the coming days remain scarce. Therefore, the operators expect for the coming slaughter week at least stable producer prices.

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)