Pig market: 12/02/2018

Prices reported to IFA

Comment: No change in the Irish pig price for this week, but the mood has definitely changed and the talk of sluggish markets and the plentiful supply of pigs has disappeared dramatically. Pig farmers are still averaging a low pig price of €1.40c to €1.42c/kg this week, which is conservatively 10c/kg below today’s cost of production. Looking at official factory prices published by the Department of Agriculture, last week’s price is 16c/kg below this week last year, and it was only around mid-February 2017 that the pig price rallied. The German pig price has increased by 10c/kg in recent days and the number of pigs presented for processing has dropped significantly. IFA pigs chair Tom Hogan said Irish pig farmers have taken enough financial pain and he called on all processors to increase the pig price significantly. He pointed towards the much-improved European marketplace and increasing demand from Asian markets as justification.