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Factory agents continue to try to dampen any expectations for increases in hogget prices. There is some regional variation starting to emerge, with factory agents in the east keener for hoggets compared with their western counter parts.
Farmers with large numbers of fleshed hoggets continue to secure €5.40/kg, but, in some cases, this has involved shopping around to maintain the status quo.
These farmers were offered lower prices of €5.30/kg, but found €5.40/kg was still available when sought elsewhere.
This probably has a lot to do with where hoggets are coming from at the moment, causing some regional imbalance in supply and price.
Prices are steady in the main, but the trade seems to be lacking the positivity that was evident a month ago.
Looking at the price trend graph above, it is evident that prices for hoggets in 2018 were rising steadily from this point onwards. One has to remember that Easter was much earlier last year, falling on 1 April.
This helps explain the 7,600 head differential in the weekly hogget kill, as factories were eager to fill Easter orders.
This year, Easter Sunday is falling on 21 April and will be followed by Ramadan in close succession. These events are likely to help spur on price increases, just as they did last year. However, for the moment, factory agents will try their best to stave off any upward movement as best they can.
There was only one change in the quotes for hoggets this week. It came from Moyvalley, which pulled its offering back 10c/kg to make up an all-in quote of €5.30/kg. Irish Country Meats remains on a base of €5.00/kg plus a 10c/kg quality assurance (QA) payment.
Kepak continues to offer more for QA hoggets, with a premium of 15c/kg over its base quote of €5.00/kg. Kildare Chilling has not quoted for hoggets again this week. Ballon Meats has held its all-in quote of €5.30/kg.
Clean livestock policy
After all the rain and storms, you would expect an increase in the incidence of rejections of hoggets before slaughter due to the Clean Livestock Policy (CPL). However, this does not seem to be the case and procurement managers have said hoggets, in general, are being presented for slaughter with very little soilage evident.
NI
Prices in the North have slipped back by 5p/kg to £4.15/kg for hoggets. This is the equivalent of €5.08/kg including VAT at 5.4% and based on an exchange rate of €1=£0.86. A total of 5,957 head were sent from the North for direct slaughter south last week, down 1,307 head on the same period in 2018.
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