Price pressure continues to haunt the market of meat pigs

The pig prices needed not one, but two significant corrections to recover from the import duties imposed by China. For the primary sector, this is understandably a heavy setback, hoping that this will keep the damage limited for now. The DCA Beursprijs can only follow the downward movement in the market. The pig market is clearly in a tough spot. In addition to the Chinese duties, supply in Europe is increasing as the days become shorter and cooler. This is an unfortunate combination that makes meat buyers in the Netherlands, Europe, and beyond even more cautious than they already were. The result is lower part prices, which became evident earlier this week in the weekly changes from DCA. Supply on the rise The pig supply is seasonally increasing, reinforced by extra delivery pressure from pig farmers trying to anticipate further price drops. Weights usually increase around this time of year, but that was not the case last week. The 267,675 slaughterings were also the highest number since mid-June and were even slightly above the level of the same week last year, despite the many stopppers in recent months. Across Europe, the supply is also plentiful. This is particularly noticeable in Spain and Denmark, with extra deliveries of parts – especially cuts from the leg – putting further pressure on the meat markets. Uncertain expectation Whether the German pig price will incur further damage next week is difficult to predict. If that happens, the price pressure will also continue to haunt the Dutch market, just like this week. With a bit of luck, stabilization can occur, because otherwise, the damage from Chinese actions could become very high. DCA Beursprijs Dutch slaughterhouses have unanimously lowered their prices by 15 cents in recent weeks. As a result, the DCA Beursprijs 2.0 still has a correction to make. Based on the reports, the quotation for slaughtered pigs decreases by €0.10 to €1.77 per kilo. The price of live pigs drops by €0.09 to €1.37 per kilo.