There was no announced change in Irish pig price last week. Farmers are now receiving quotes ranging from €2.06c/kg up to €2.14/kg from processing plants, however some farmers are reporting quotes of €2.20/kg and above in some cases.
This week over 145 Irish pig producers will receive payments from the Pig Exceptional Payment Scheme and in most cases this money will be used to reduce feed credit.
European market price continues to increase as pig supply tightens. Some factors contributing to the supply of pigs tightening include: Shortage of Pigs presenting for slaughter across all EU countries and UK, the average dead weight of Pigs being slaughtered has reduced significantly, and increase in demand for fresh Pork due to warmer temperatures has cleared all frozen stocks of Pork from Cold-storage.
French (€2.44), UK (€2.36) & Spanish (€2.23) lead the EU market price.
Matif Dec. Delivery Wheat & Maize jumped €10-€15/t at the end of last week following the comments from Putin that they may restrict the countries that can receive Ukrainian exports. Ukraine still has 20 Mt of wheat in storage from last year’s harvest of 32 MT, with a further estimated 18Mt being harvested this year so storage is going to be difficult. Current Irish wheat & maize prices are €328 & €322 respectively. It is unlikely that these prices will reduce much at this stage in the season. With feed cost likely to have levelled off and non-feed costs likely to increase further, the market must return more to farmers to secure a supply of Irish pigmeat into the future. 12,000 sows are gone from Irish herds, the impact of which has not hit the market yet. More are likely to cease if the market does not deliver.
