With a few exceptions, the quotations are moving sideways. As the leading quotation, the German unchanged prices are exerting considerable influence on this trend. Spain and France both were capable of continuing this kind of upbeat tendency and had their prices increase. Thus, Spain - the southern European holiday country - was able to expand its lead position in the European price structure. With its corrected EUR 1.67 per kg slaughter weight, it nearly scratches the EUR 1.70 limit.

Central Europe, however, still is far from that. For the fourth time in a row, the German corrected quotation stands at EUR 1.336, thus ranking second last among the five EU member countries richest in pigs. The Netherlands, ranking last, are tending lower. All over Europe, the idea still hasn't been laid to rest of putting a stop to private storage and the impact it has on the market. The Dutch Vleuten stock market went down by a corrected 1.9 cents on Friday. Yet, Vion as the market-leading slaughter company usually quoting on Mondays, did not take advantage of this for reducing the price as well.

Trend for the German market: The quantities of live pigs on offer still prove to be abounding and are well demanded on the part of the slaughter companies. At the beginning of the month, solvent customers strongly demand pork again. Increased quantities of bratwurst and curried sausage are going to be eaten over the carnival season. From today's point of view, the prices are expected to remain unchanged.

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)