Numerous quotations were able again to continue price increases and go up noticeably. Italy reported the strongest price increase after having had to cope with a price decrease over the past weeks. Great Britain as well went up in prices, followed suit by Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium. The only quotations that remained unchanged were the Spanish, French and Swedish ones.

The Danish quotation also went just sideways, thus closing ranks with the Dutch price level. In case Denmark would not follow next week, they would be granted the lowest rank again among the five EU member states richest in pigs after a long period of time. As a result of the price increases in both the Netherlands and Germany, the price gap could be further closed with regard to Spain as the leader and France as the runner-up.

Positive prospects are promised by the latest assessment made by the American Department of Agriculture. According to that, global pork imports are expected to go up by about 7 per cent. Behind this lie the increasing import needs reported from South Korea that results from a foot-and-mouth epidemic, increasing demand from China as well as from Japan which was shaken by the earthquake and tsunami. Russia as well is expected to increase the demand for pork, because the planned expansion of the Russian pig stocks will be harder because of feedstuff lack resulting from water shortages.

Trend for the German market: After the Easter holidays, the quantities of pigs mature for slaughter encounter brisk demand for pork. Taking a look back to Easter, the producers face unusually advantageous market conditions: In the past years, the temperatures were not always as mild as they are this year. So, the barbecue meat sales were booming this time Easter. The asparagus season also having started so early and so briskly also made the meat prices go up. A strong price increase is anticipated with regard to the quotations to come.

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)