Thus, the prices are moving sideways all over Europe, with just a few exceptions given. It’s one of the price-determining features that the quotations remained unchanged in the so called ‘Bermuda Triangle’ consisting of Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. Nowhere else than in Southern and Eastern Europe do the prices continue to tend weakly. This way, the price gap among the TOP 5 member countries richest in pigs is getting smaller. The difference amounted to a remarkable 25 cents in week 35 still between the corrected peak (Spain) and the lowest corrected value (the Netherlands). Meanwhile, the difference has gone down to just 9 cents, which must be attributed above all to the Spanish seasonal fall in prices.

According to a forecast given by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), the global need for imports of pork is supposed to increase in 2011; South Korea and Australia in particular offered the chance of it, says the agricultural magazine. That is good prospects for the EU to be regarded as a serious competitor for the USA, Canada and Brazil. As said by the USDA analysis as well, the EU pork exports are yet assumed to go down by as much as almost 10 per cent as a result of high production costs in 2011. This figure seems to be a bit too pessimistic, because on the one hand the EU’s own requirements are expected to remain constant in 2011. On the other hand, there is talk of increasing pig production by as much as 2 per cent approximately despite the tense economic situation.

Market trend for Germany: It may be taken for granted for next week that the pigs-mature-for-slaughter prices are going to stabilise further. The large quantities of live pigs on offer do not support price increases at the moment.

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; farm-gate-price; 79 per cent killing out percentage, without value-added-tax (VAT)