In a large part of Europe, the slaughter pigs market is being affected by the beginning holiday season. This week, the price decreases range from one to six cents. In the Netherlands and Spain, the corrected quotation went down by one cent; in Germany and Denmark it fell by as much as three cents, and in Great Britain, it caved in by even six cents. The Swedish and Austrian quotations, however, remain unchanged. In Sweden, the price goes up by one corrected cent which must be attributed to Euro/Swedish Crown exchange rate changes.

Pork sales went down throughout Europe as a result of the summer holidays which have started in many countries recently. Owing to the lower demand in major cities, purchase in food retailing is declining. At the same time, the quantities of pigs for slaughter are going down because of the high temperatures which cause slower growth. This can also be seen in the lower slaughter weights as are observed in Spain, for instance.

Trend: Due to slower growth with the pigs and the thus lower quantities of pigs mature for slaughter being on offer, demand for pork is quite balanced at present. Hence, the pig prices are expected to remain unchanged 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)