ISN reports that the European pigs-mature-for-slaughter market is still developing in an inconsistent way. Both steady trends and increasing quotations are being found on the various EU member countries’ markets. While unchanged quotations are observed in central Europe, the price barometers are obviously going up in southern and northern European regions.

Spain continues to be a step ahead, continuing the seasonal increase in prices by a corrected 2.8 cents and thus further outpacing the rest of Europe.

On the one hand, the quantities of live pigs on offer are considerably lower than would be needed to match demand. This said, the demand for pork from China has reportedly increased, potentially stimulated by recovering prices in the Chinese market.

Meanwhile, the quotation in Denmark has increased by a corrected 2.7 cents over this week of slaughter. This way, the Danish quotation is outpacing its Dutch counterpart, which is now bearing the red light again in the EU price structure of the five EU member countries most significant in pig production.

In France, the pigs-for-slaughter quotation is stabilising yet showing a marginal positive trend. Compared with last year’s figures, the relatively high slaughter weights are decreasing slowly.

Unchanged quotations are reported from the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Great Britain, and from Germany as well.

Trend for the German market

At the beginning of this week, the current market situation appeared in a positive way. Pigs for slaughter continue to be in demand, and the marketers still have large purchasing potentials. It remains to be seen over the following days whether or not this will have a longer-lasting positive impact.