EU Pig Production Levels Up in April
EU - Provisional figures from the EU Commission show that EU pig meat production increased year-on-year in April, up 5 per cent to 1,950 thousand tonnes.However, when adjusted to the same working days, production levels were broadly similar to 2015 levels.
Similarly, clean pig slaughterings were also up in April on the year earlier, by 4 per cent to 21.4 million head, but slightly down when adjusted to the same number of working days.
EU production levels were forecast to rise slightly in the first half of 2016, so production levels were largely in line with expectations. These production movements may suggest that member states are capitalising on the strong export demand created by the Chinese and Far East markets.
The EU pig price started to increase significantly from May onwards, so these production levels would not yet take into account this market movement.
There were fluctuations in production levels from the member states. German production increased 7 per cent year-on-year, while Spanish production increased by 14 per cent over the same period.
The Netherlands recorded a more modest increase in production, at 3 per cent, while Denmark posted falls in production levels, of 2 per cent.