This week as well, the European slaughter pig market appears in a well-balanced state. Thus, the two-month phase of unchanged prices continues in many countries.

From quite a number of countries, reports are coming in about good export business for less expensive parts. At the same time, however, there are problems occurring on many domestic markets related to the sales of high-quality parts.

No price changes are recorded in the countries that are richest in pigs in Europe. As a result of changes in exchange rates, price increases of about three cents were noted in Great Britain and Sweden. In France, the price went down by 1.5 cents during last Monday's auction, with the price pressure in ham sales being named as a reason. Last Thursday, the French price stabilised again. After the usual holiday-season price increase failed to materialise in Spain this summer, pig keepers there are happy to find the usual September fall in prices not to be forthcoming these weeks, now that most of the holiday-makers have departed again, and that the market remains steady. Better meat sales are observed in Austria as a result of campaigns started by food retailing.

Trend for the German market

Over the two weeks before last week, the number of slaughters was on a high level, yet at the same time there was a slightly regressive trend. As for the days ahead, marketers say that larger numbers of pigs have been registered. In order to allow for price increase, the producers urgently need to be enforced, meat sales need to be stimulated.

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)