The EU-spec standard pig price (SPP) has fallen for the third consecutive week during the week ended April 13, dropping back by a further 0.34p to stand at 210.67p/kg.
The SPP has now lost nearly 1p over the past three weeks and 3p since the end of 2023, despite barely moving during February and March.
It is now nearly 7p behind where it was a year ago, when pig prices were still rising.
The more volatile all pig price (APP), which includes premium pigs, gained 0.78p during the week ended April 6, more than cancelling out the previous week’s losses, to stand at 211.93p/kg.
This put it nearly 1p ahead of the SPP for the week.
Having gained 16.5p in the February and March, the EU reference price dropped back by 0.7p during the week ended April 7 to stand at 187.3p/kg.
This meant the gap to the equivalent UK reference price expanded slightly to 21.3p, albeit still much more manageable than the 37p gap at the start of February, the National Pig Association (NPA) said.
Slaughterings
The NPA said the most “eye-catching” aspect of this week’s update is a big increase in estimated GB slaughterings.
However, the trade association for UK pig farmers said this might be partly explained by the fact that it followed the two shorter Easter weeks.
Estimated GB slaughterings for the week ended April 13, were 13,000 up on the previous four-day week at 158,699.
This was 5,000 more than the same week a year ago, but still 19,000 below the 2022 figure, when extra kills were taking place to get through the backlog.
Carcase weights fell back by more than 0.5kg to 91.15kg in the SPP sample during the week ended April 14, still more than 1kg up on the same week in 2023.
London feed wheat was quoted by AHDB on Wednesday at £173/tonne for May, slightly down on last week and £196/t for November 2024, £1 up on last week.
