This was the highest level recorded since October 2015. Much of this price buoyancy has been exacerbated by the increasing demand from China, where export levels from the major EU producing states are now at record highs.

Encouragingly, this volume growth has not been at the expense of value, due to the current high Chinese pig price. This increasing demand from China has also helped to absorb the extra pork released onto the market, which was stored in the Private Storage Aid initiative in January.

All major producing member states have recorded a positive movement in prices, with the German price rising over €14/100kg since the beginning of May, and the Dutch price over €13/100kg in the same period.

In sterling terms, the EU pig price has also risen over recent weeks, and now stands at 107.65p/kg for week ending 29 May. This level was last recorded in September 2015. While both the EU and UK price has been improving over recent weeks, the EU price has done so at a greater rate. This has resulted in the UK price premium falling to 8.5p, the lowest level since September 2013.

This could mean that there is less demand for imported pork, and potentially support the UK market further.