The German price development has once again hit the headlines. Despite the downward development of live pig supplies, meat processing plants have been demanding a price decrease, threatening to charge discounted prices. Germany's quotation finally went down by two cents. The French, Belgian and British quotations show a downward trend as well.

Pig prices in the Netherlands also appear to be noteworthy. Although the Dutch quotation normally follows the German quotation, this time, it appears to follow a path of its own. As a result of the scarcity of quantities on offer, the Dutch record a slight plus. Last week’s price decrease appears to have been a little too low.

The Austrian also quotation seems to be unusual: the slaughter pig price remains constant, regardless of the German requirements. As a result, the difference between the two corrected quotations is exceptionally narrow, being just 1.4 cents.

During the course of the 2011 dioxin scandal and the dramatic price deterioration resulting from it, the German quotation had fallen below the Austrian price level. Unchanged quotations from Spain, Denmark and Ireland have been reported.

Trend for the German market: In view of scarce supply on the live pigs market, German slaughter companies have accepted the level of quotations. Thus, discounted prices are off the table at the moment. Barbecue meat still is in great demand among consumers, with the prevalence of summer temperatures. Live pigs on offer continue to lessen. One of the market participants commented on the demand for slaughter pigs, saying that it cannot be completely covered. So, from today’s point of view, prices are expected to increase.

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)