There was no change to Irish pig prices last Friday with farmers reporting quotes of €2.34 – €2.42 available among Irish processing plants.
The weekly throughput for week ending the 16th of June was 65715 of which 1674 were sows. This year to date the weekly slaughter figures are back circa 11% on fatteners processed for the same period last year.
The average European price for a grade E carcass pig for week 23 was 243.5/kg which is 30% higher than prices for the same week last year. Forward markets from Germany are indicating that further increases are likely this week in Germany.
The European pig herd has one million fewer sows in the main pig producing member states, from the period January to March 2023 vs the same period in 2022. Overall EU slaughter figures are back 7.7% or 4.77M pigs. For instance, Denmark is back 16.3%, Germany back 8.0%, Spain is back 9% and in Ireland we are back 11% year to date on fattening slaughter figures with a further 2% drop already in the pipeline.
Earlier this week the EU crop monitoring service reduced nearly all its average yield forecasts for this year’s grain and oilseed crops, due to adverse weather conditions. The average yield projection for soft wheat is now 5.92 t/ha, down from 6.01 t/ha in last month’s report. However, this remains above the 5.79 t/ha yielded last year.
