Pig price held back by instability

By James Brady

This week another group of pig producers are faced with uncertainty about their slaughter outlet given the unfortunate fire in Duffy's in Gort earlier this week.

This family owned company which slaughters both pigs and cattle was damaged by fire on Monday of this week and the extent of the damage is thankfully not enough to stop slaughtering in the plant.

This year the estimated weekly pig kill has been circa 1,500 per week, (1,000 finished pigs & 500 sows). This event does show that it is a major risk to attempt to run the pig industry at close to maximum capacity, which will be the case if Galtee close on 31st October.

The strong expectation of a price rise for pigs this week came to naught on Friday when the price didn't increase. The Irish pig price range is still from €1.36 in a number of the smaller pork processors to €1.42 and above in other plants, with a welfare bonus at 6c/kg. Pig prices in the North are steady with deals for a 6-month period now being discussed.

Based on futures markets, there may be a bit more bit in these prices this week. As pointed out last week Irish prices are well behind the EU average at just 88% for last week.

This is a far cry from the heady days of February when pig supplies were tight and the Irish price was 106% of the EU average.

This is a turnaround of 18% or €17 per pig. Producers can only imagine what this would do to a battered bank balance.

There were no changes in EU sow prices to record this week, which means British sows are still making €43 liveweight and German sows are making €44. Irish sow prices are still in the €0.94(€33) to €1.00/kg (€35) range.

Weaner prices are steady and prices of €47 to €50 for 32kg's is still being quoted.