Pig market: 23/04/2018

Prices reported to IFA

Comment: Irish pig prices remain unchanged for another week. The kill for last week was 69,813. Quotes from the main export plants remain from €1.38c/kg to a high of €1.42c/kg. While all pig producers remain hopeful of a much-required price increase after producing pigs on a weekly basis for the past three months at less than the cost of production, pig farmers are starting to feel the pinch and so are their bank managers. Any cash reserves built up from the good prices received in the summer months of 2017 have long disappeared and the Irish pig sector is facing a worrying time. Static low pig prices and talk of feed price increases are leaving the pig production business looking increasing gloomy. While hard-gained improvements in production and efficiency at farm levels in recent years have increased output on many Irish pig farms, without a significant price increase in the imminent future, a serious financial crisis looms over Ireland’s third-largest agricultural sector.