After France continued its downward trend by a corrected minus 3.8 cents on Thursday other quotations in Central Europe followed suit on Friday.

Germany set a trend again with its 6 cents’ decrease in the quotation.

The Netherlands, Belgium and Austria followed, reporting notable price decreases.

Unchanged prices are still paid in Denmark, Ireland and Great Britain.

For as long as eight weeks’ time so far, the slaughter pig quotation in Denmark has been moving on a price level of a corrected 1.603 euros per kg slaughter weight.

As to the five major pig keeping nations within the European price structure, this exporting nation thus ranks second behind Spain now.

There appears to be a lot of disappointment among producers throughout Europe. After weeks of waiting, the prices are getting into trouble.

In view of extensive quantities on offer, slower demand for meat and quite some public holidays ahead in May, the current situation appears to be quite tense.

In Germany, VION obviously triggered an avalanche last week with their excessive demand for markdowns. Many German slaughter companies at present increase the pressure by paying discounted prices.

Trend for the German market: The slaughter companies’ purchasing capacities are quite limited currently with the quantities on offer being rather extensive. Due to the missing day of slaughter this week (public holiday on 1 May), the batches can no longer be placed on the market at short notice. The German slaughter companies’ policy of discounted prices causes increased pressure. Some kind of "barbecue boom" is urgently needed in order to help find a way for lean meat sales and to lend steadiness to prices.

Week	D	NL	DK	B	F	PL	CZ	IT	ESP	AUT	GB	IR
Week 11	1.626	1.557	1.603	1.556	1.640	1.638	1.600	1.816	1.818	1.581	1.745	1.642
Week 12	1.626	1.557	1.603	1.556	1.696	1.642	1.593	1.759	1.818	1.561	1.782	1.642
Week 13	1.626	1.557	1.604	1.569	1.678	1.633	1.581	1.730	1.818	1.561	1.827	1.642
Week 14	1.626	1.557	1.604	1.569	1.671	1.655	1.593	1.715	1.818	1.561	1.775	1.642
Week 15	1.626	1.566	1.604	1.581	1.653	1.668	1.590	1.627	1.818	1.561	1.813	1.642
Week 16	1.646	1.576	1.604	1.593	1.630	1.661	1.590	1.595	1.819	1.561	1.845	1.603
Week 17	1.646	1.576	1.603	1.581	1.602		1.603	1.595	1.818	1.561	1.847	1.613
Week 18	1.586	1.519	1.603	1.532	1.564			1.595	1.809	1.499	1.878	1.613
Prices in Euros (€)

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)