Dear readers,

Besides the new price increase perspectives, there are other good news:

• University of Minnesota researchers developed a surrogate virus for African Swine Fever Virus that will help develop effective mitigation strategies to control ASFV and keep it from entering North America. 
• Wall Meat South Dakota received a $3.3 million grant from the government agency, and will put it towards a new processing facility. Wall Meat is processing between 700 and 800 cattle and hogs per year (up from 500), with the new facility, its capacity will jump further to 4,000 head.
• A majority of Americans eat meat regularly and believe it’s a healthy choice, according to a survey of 1,500 Americans by Newsweek magazine. The poll also shows that 81 percent of Americans eat meat at least once a week. Americans do not think the meat industry is bad for the climate.
• Surveys conducted by the POV and NVP Dutch organizations indicated that 95 percent of the Dutch eat meat on a regular basis and 70 percent support intensive livestock farming.
• Cranswick Great Britain grew its profits of £146 million in the latest financial year, as it continued to bolster its pig production base to shore up its supplies of pork. Cranswick now has a herd of 62,000 sows, producing 29,000 pigs per week, increasing its self-sufficiency to close to 50%.
• After 2.5 years, South Korea lifts its import ban on German pork. This is the first result of South Korea’s adoption in September 2022 of the export regionalization concept in the event of an ASF outbreak for supplies from unaffected parts of the country. The country has granted permission to three German slaughterhouses/meat processors to ship pork. In that context, German slaughterhouses have been inspected again in recent months.

Events calendar:

• The 14^th European Symposium of Porcine Health Management is hosted by the School of Veterinary Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, from 31^st May to 2^nd June 2023.

Let’s stay together

            Obviously, we are happy with the increase of prices, even most of the markets in Europe are having again 2 short weeks. Even so, pigs are insufficient. Spain is working with imported pigs from Belgium and The Netherlands, Italian slaughterhouses move to 4 days/week program and in Austria there were only 80% of the pigs available for the needs of the slaughterhouses.

Also in Germany, due to the competition concerns of the Federal Cartel Office, the Animal Welfare Initiative has decided to abolish the previously applicable obligatory price surcharge for the buyers of the participating producers (so-called „animal welfare fee”) by 2024. The Bundeskartellamt welcomes the fact that a non-binding recommendation for financing the additional costs associated with the animal welfare criteria is being introduced instead. The 5,28 € ITW bonus comes to an end, farmers will look to other ways for getting this extra payment.

Speaking about bonuses: the Tönnies slaughterhouse wants to cancel the loyalty bonus for its pig suppliers who do not provide the contractually agreed annual delivery quantities. According to its own statement, the meat company tolerated high delivery deviations during the corona pandemic and still granted the bonus, but now they are looking forward to more predictable times and all suppliers are required to check their current annual delivery volume.

Opening of other markets is important: South Korea was a main buyer of German pork. In 2019, the country imported about 106,000 tons of pork from Germany, including about 41,000 tons of pork belly. With approximately 298 million euros, South Korea was the second largest buyer of German pork outside the EU member states in 2019.

Still, the outmost important market should be the own market.

In the past 2022/23 financial year (February 28), the Schwarz Group (Lidl and Kaufland) increased its sales by more than EUR 20 billion.

Meanwhile, in a recent study by ‘Branchenecho Fleischwirtschaft’, companies in the meat sector indicate that they cannot pass on the rising costs, or only insufficiently. More than three-quarters of companies say they are in a pinch as a result. These companies point to retail as the reason. They block the passing on of the increased costs. More than a quarter of the entrepreneurs surveyed indicate that they have not been able to adjust prices until now, while consumer prices for meat and processed meat products have risen sharply. While German supermarket chains are increasing the prices for their meat and meat products, they will not accept an increase in the purchase prices of these products. As a result, the German slaughterhouses and meat processors cannot pass on their sharply increased purchasing and processing costs.

            Similar evolution has been seen in many European markets. As a long time partner and friend from the pig industry states: the market has lost its price forming character. Market chains take the largest slice of the profit, leaving farmers and slaughterhouses to fight each other for a few percent.

            Let’s stay together !

European pig and piglet prices: HW= Hot weight; L= live weight;

COUNTRY	PIG(EUR)	TREND	PIGLET(EUR)	TREND	OBSERVATION
GERMANY	2,38 HW		88/25 kg
NETHERLANDS	2,13-2,42 HW		75,50/25 kg
BELGIUM	1,75 L		74/20 kg
DANEMARK	1,85 HW		91,5/25 kg
FRANCE	2,15 HW
ITALY	1,76 L- 115 kg, 2,09 L- 160 kg, DOC		137/30 kg
SPAIN	2,02-2,05 L		101-111/20kg
PORTUGAL	2,8 HW
AUSTRIA	2,34 HW		97,5 /25 kg
POLAND	1,72-1,99 L		105 -133/20-30 kg		Partner info; no quotation
CROATIA	2,10-2,50 HW		105-115/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
SERBIA	2,4 L		115-128/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
CZECH R.	2,32 – 2,36 HW		77-83/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
SLOVAKIA	1,95 -2,1 L		105-114/25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
HUNGARY	2,06 – 2,20 L		105-115/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
ROMANIA	2,2 – 2,25 L		105-115/25kg		Partner info; no quotation