The Irish pig industry has experienced a Lazarus-like recovery from this time last year when a prolonged period of depressingly low prices had driven even the best and most efficient farmers to the point of extinction.

Prices had been falling since June 2015 when an EU ban on trade with Russia really took effect, with increased production across Europe not having a market. The fall continued until April 2016 when prices bottomed out at €1.33/kg before the desperately needed recovery began and prices actually topped €1.60/kg towards the end of 2016 before slipping back to €1.55/kg.

Recovery driver

The driver of the recovery from the middle of 2016 has been the Chinese market where the processing sector has environmental issues and the number of breeding sows has been in decline.

The only larger market Ireland has for pig meat is the UK

Domestic production in China has been getting around €3/kg and it is now the second most important market for Irish pig meat exports in 2015, taking 65,000t in 2016 which is 28% of export sales.

The only larger market Ireland has for pig meat is the UK, which fell 4% last year, with sterling weakening against the euro, to 88,000t, with the remainder 50,000t sold to other EU markets.

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Listen: China continues to drive international pig trade