Most of the quotations still have left some room to move upward. Belgium is the leader with its five cents’ price increase (corrected version). After five listless weeks, Denmark finally recorded a noticeable increase in quotation, thus avoiding at the last minute to slip off to rank last in the price structure of the five European countries richest in pigs. Given their corrected quotation, the Dutch rank right behind Denmark. There is serious disappointment in Germany, where the price went up by no more than 4 cents which was less than had been expected.

In Spain, the quotation went up again for the first time since calendar week 10 / 2011, missing by a hair’s breadth the 1.70 euro limit with a corrected price level of 1.68 euro. As a result of well-balanced market conditions, the French price remained unchanged. Decreasing pig populations effected the pork production in the Czech Republic. There, 4.7 percent less pigs were slaughtered over the first quarter of 2011.

Trend for the German market: The quantities of pigs for slaughter went up over the weekend but are swiftly being worked off at the beginning of the week. Although the slaughter companies use to complain about unfeasible mark-ups, the demand for pork is expected to continue to be good. While the slaughter companies call for a breather, the price increase should however continue from the producers’ point of view.

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)