The supply of factory ready pigs remains in tight supply as indicated by the reduced weekly kill of 63,500 last week. Pig factories appear to have circled the wagons and held prices for the past two weeks, and the upward trajectory of Irish pig prices has temporarily stalled.
This is in line with the EU Commission pig market outlook which predicted that the EU pig price would increase to today’s current price and level off for a period in mid-summer. It is worth noting that the same outlook report predicts that the real impact of ASF and the loss of domestic production in China will cause demand for European pork to increase in third quarter of 2019. Farmers continue to receive in the region of €1.78c/kg for pigs this week, with the most farmers finding it difficult to break the €1.80c/kg barrier.
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