At the moment, supply and demand are well balanced on the various European markets. Unchanged prices are reported from almost all countries. With regard to the Central European countries, the prices are only deviating from this trend in Belgium and the Netherlands – down one and two cents, respectively – and the French price is up one cent. Even if in some countries the meat sales are not going as swiftly as desired, as a result of the holiday season, most lots which are sold fast to the slaughter companies are of usual to slightly below-average size.

Almost all major German slaughter companies were in step last Friday by surprisingly announcing house prices that amounted to €1.56. From the pig producers' point of view, this kind of procedure suggests agreement and is completely incomprehensible. Even if in some parts the meat business is not at its best, the question remains to be asked whether or not establishing house prices for this week's meat sales was a reasonable thing to do.

Trend for the German market: As to the week ahead, it remains to be seen whether it is the reduced supply of slaughter pigs or the sinister scenarios made up by the slaughter companies which is going to win through in future price development.

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)