The major reason for that still is the scarce supply of pigs mature for slaughter. In Germany, it’s not only the stocks which are declining; the exports of pigs for slaughter as well as of piglets have never been higher than they were during the first months of the year.

Through this, the German slaughter houses are scarcely supplied, accordingly. Consequentially, the quotation went up by +3 cents.

In the wake of the German quotation, price increases were also enforced in the neighbouring countries: Austria (+2 cents), the Netherlands (+3 cents) and Belgium (+3 cents). In those countries, the situation was similar to that in Germany.

Currently, the slaughter companies have problems realising the price increases in the meat business. For running the slaughter belts at reasonable capacity, they need to pay higher prices, however. The scarce supply is additionally emphasised by the low slaughter weights.

After the clear price increases which occurred over the summer and during the holiday season, the markets seem to stabilise on the high level in Spain and France. No change in prices was reported from Denmark this week. There, the markets are said to be steady with more or less unchanging prices in the meat business.

Trend for the German market: Before the prices went up last Friday, the slaughter companies threatened with making their own prices which, however, were not realised by any company. For the current week as well, supply is indicated to remain scarce but swiftly demanded on the part of the slaughter companies. From today’s point of view, the prices should therefore remain at least steady for the week to come.