The popular annual publication – The Pig Cost of Production in Selected Countries – has been updated with (the latest) 2018 data and, for the first time, reports on indoor and outdoor sows separately.

It shows the cost of pig meat production in the UK rose by eight percent in 2018, to £1.47 per kg. The average cost of production in the EU was £1.44 per kg deadweight – a four percent rise compared with 2017.

The report also revealed that average feed prices were higher, increasing across the participating EU countries by an average of just over nine percent.

AHDB’s Pork Lead Analyst Carol Davis said: “These latest figures show that in comparison with the previous year, EU pig prices were relatively weak during 2018 as supplies increased.

“Good profitability during 2017 had encouraged herd expansion and on top of this, feed prices were on an upward trend, meaning that producer margins generally worsened as the year progressed. The impact of lower pig prices, particularly during the autumn, therefore, had an exaggerated effect.”

The report also revealed a one percent increase in pigs weaned per sow in the UK’s indoor herd to 27.35. However, as a consequence of the weather in 2018, the UK’s outdoor herds’ performance fell by three percent to 23.22.

Excluding the UK’s outdoor herds, there is a difference of 8.8 pigs weaned per sow per year between the highest and lowest-performing EU countries.

The report also showed the average number of pigs finished per sow in the UK’s indoor herds increased by one percent to 25.41 pigs and indoor herds produced more than two tonnes of carcase meat per sow – up one percent on 2017.