Dear readers,

Let’s continue to bring good news:

• A division of the company operating Thunder Creek Pork has celebrated the official opening of its new federally inspected sow slaughterings and processing facility, repurposed from the mothballed JBS/XL Foods Beef Plant in Moose Jaw. This is the first new pork processing facility in Canada in over a decade!
• The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced an important milestone in its approach to protect the trade of live pigs, pork and pork products in the event of an outbreak in Canada. In support of the Canadian ASF Compartment Program and following a consultation done in 2022, the CFIA released National Standards and a National Framework to guide industry in the next steps towards implementing the program.
• The Bishop Burton College in UK had the official opening ceremony for the new state-of-the-art Centre for Pig Industry Training at Bishop Burton College, a free farrowing space farm that will become home to 300 sow and up to 10,000 piglets. The center will be used together with White Rose Farms and will serve both students and agriculture well for many years to come.
• In 2023/24 MY, Russia will export more than 65 million tons of grain, higher year-on-year (60 million tons). The Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Dmitry Patrushev expressed on a government meeting. The minister also confirmed the previously made forecast regarding grain harvesting in 2023 at the level of 140 million tons, including 93 million tons of wheat.

Events calendar:

• Villanueva de Córdoba, Spain, hosts the Iberian Ham from Acorn from Los Pedroches Fair between 9-12 of November, at the Municipal Theatre. Two of the most important events held are the National Ham Cutters Competition, and the Competition for the best Acorn-fed Iberian Ham from Los Pedroches.
• This year the MEATMANIA,  a trade fair specialized in the world of meat processing and sausage products takes place on 4 days from Wednesday, 08.11.2023 to Saturday, 11.11.2023 in  IEC Inter Expo Center Sofia, Bulgaria.
• The thirteenth AGRITECHNICA, the world’s leading trade fair for agricultural technology, takes place on 7 days from Sunday, 12.11.2023 to Saturday, 18.11.2023 in Hanover, Germany, at the Hannover Fairgrounds.
• The FHC China – Food & Hospitality China is an international trade fair for food and beverages, organised on 3 days from Wednesday, 08.11.2023 to Friday, 10.11.2023 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC).
• PORKEXPO LATAM 2023 will be held on November 7, 8 and 9, in Foz do Iguaçu (PR), at the Recanto Cataratas Thermas Resort & Convention, and the Brazilian Association of Pig Breeders (ABCS)is creating and launching the Seal of Best Pork Cut and Best Sausage in Brazil.

Don’t Dream It’s Over

For the first time in many months, the table shows more positive than negative signs. Also, testing of an ASF vaccine on wild boars in Hungary will start soon and more vaccines are developed and tested in Vietnam.

Still, we have to face many challenges. The vaccine testing may go well, but it will take a lot of time to make it commercially available in large amounts and the approach to authorize the use of it may differ on every continent. In Europe the areas with large number of backyard farms will pose a supplemental challenge and any inappropriate vaccination procedure would spread also other diseases.

PRRS is still largely affecting the pig herd in Spain, where a more virulent strain appeared and there is no sign of short recovery. Taking this in consideration, The Danish Agriculture and Food Council has decided to try to eradicate PRRS throughout Denmark. The slaughterhouses will apply a gradual decrease of the purchasing price for the PRRS positive pigs, but a mapping of the current situation had to be done prior to this. Results from this summer show that 56% of holdings were already PRRS free, 28% positive and 13% still unknown. 3% of holdings were currently undergoing recovery programs.

Other major issue is the meat consumption, largely controlled by the pricing policy of the major retail chains. Current price levels are estimated to be with 30% over those of the period prior to Covid. Now an optimistic sign is coming from Germany: the Schwarz Group, which includes the Lidl and Kaufland chains, has announced permanent price cuts on most sausage products, while Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd have already offered permanent discounts of up to 20% on various sausage products. These discounts are justified by falling raw material prices. Due to the fact that the German retailers are also massively present in other European markets, I would expect to see this development in other markets too.

Raw materials for the typical Christmas products are also starting to be purchased, it gives a chance to a better spread of the margins trough the pig industry. Still, we will have to face the soon starting fasting period, inflation and the backyard pig coming to market. Crisis? Don’t dream it’s over!

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

COUNTRY	PIG(EUR)	TREND	PIGLET(EUR)	TREND	OBSERVATION
GERMANY	2,1 HW		70/25 kg
NETHERLANDS	1,98-2,12 HW		60,50/25 kg
BELGIUM	1,5 L		51/20 kg
DANEMARK	1,68 HW		71,5/25 kg
FRANCE	1,805 HW
ITALY	2 L115kg, 2,33 L160kg, DOC		114/30 kg
SPAIN	1,68 -1,70 L		64-73/20kg
PORTUGAL	2,35 HW
AUSTRIA	2,07 HW		90/25 kg
POLAND	1,5-1,86 L		69-112/20-30 kg		Partner info; no quotation
CROATIA	2,0-2,2 HW		95-100 / 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
SERBIA	2,1 L		105-115/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
CZECH R.	2,1 HW		69-74/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
SLOVAKIA	1,67 -1,77 L		90-95/25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
HUNGARY	1,70 – 1,89 L		90-95/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
ROMANIA	1,75 – 1,85 L		90-95/25kg		Partner info; no quotation