It is true that the consolidated price remained on an unchanged level in Germany last Thursday. But on Thursday afternoon, nearly all major slaughter companies in Germany almost simultaneously announced an internal price of EUR 1.42. This common strategy (from which one might assume an arrangement to have been made) proves to be very questionable from the producers' point of view. As a result of this kind of action, many marketers find themselves forced to deviate from the price agreements they made with the pig keepers earlier and just pay a basic price which is by 6 cents lower.

From Great Britain, the situation is reported to be balanced between supply and demand. As a result of the cold temperatures, the pigs for slaughter are being held a little longer. In France, the quantities of pigs for slaughter on offer are not too large. Demand for pork is expected to increase noticeably at the beginning of January; yet it may not be totally covered by the lower numbers of pigs slaughtered during the holidays. So the French price went up by three cents. This way, the French pigs-mature-for-slaughter price was able to roll past the Danish quotation, thus catching up with the Dutch price. With quotations having remained unchanged otherwise, Germany was able to keep the lead among the five EU member countries richest in pigs, followed by the Spanish quotation. France and the Netherlands are sharing rank three between them.

Trend for Germany: As a consequence of the past days' price discussions and of the feeling of uncertainty thus caused for the pig keepers, more pigs than before are on offer for slaughter. With the marketing opportunities having been limited through the holidays, ever more marketers report on excess of supply. Price decreases cannot be ruled out for the week ahead.

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)