Dear readers,

As live pig prices still await the seasonal increase, we look for other good

news:

• The Spanish province of Cadiz officially presented the “Eat meat, eat healthy, for your health and the planet’s” training sessions , which were created with the aim of raising awareness among the population about the importance of nutritional health and the sustainability of the livestock sector in Spain. These sessions are aimed at students between 12 and 13 years old from high schools and will last 3 to 4 hours, will feature presentations by experts and a subsequent round tables.
• The Meat Science Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

received a 3 million $ investment to help upgrade the facility. The

investment came from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and

Environmental Sciences (ACES), Facilities and Services (F&S) and the U.S.

Department of Agriculture’s new Research Facilities Act Program.

• A $1 million Seeding Solutions grant from the Foundation for Food &

Agriculture Research (FFAR) has been awarded to Kansas State University (K

State) to develop safe and rapidly deployable vaccines to prevent African

swine fever (ASF) virus. Elanco Animal Health, K-State, Kansas State University Innovation Partners and Median Diagnostics, Inc. provided matching funds for a $2,645,427 total investment.

Events calendar:

• WorldFood Poland is an international fair dedicated to the fields of food and beverages, food processing, and packaging. As the largest food fair in Poland, the annual event takes place at the Warszawskie Centrum EXPO XXI in Warsaw, known for its excellent accessibility and modern facilities. The WorldFood Poland presents itself for the tenth anniversary edition on 3 days from Tuesday, 16.04.2024 to Thursday, 18.04.2024 in Warsaw.
• Farmers, specialists, managers and authorities in the field of agriculture, find at AGRARIA Jucu(Cluj), Romania, the latest news on agricultural technology, mechanization solutions and innovations in the field of animal husbandry. This year’s edition is held between 18-21 of April.

Glory Days

            Last week I was travelling across Romania, meeting with several clients and potential partners. This title and comment section is suggested by one of them. Thank you, Alex!

            We were going through some of the events and factors that could produce a shift on the market. Alex, while having also his own farm, is continuing the family business by managing a pig slaughterhouse. An opinion that I heard also from other players: the business is better, when the pigs are expensive!

            Let’s go through some information that can influence the market:

• According to projections from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), in 2024 China’s total hog inventory will close at 423.6 million pigs , down from 452.5 million recorded the previous year, the first decline since 2020. As, except the pandemic years, the country was the main driver of the international meat trading, we can expect the Chinese buyers to return to the international market and cause a general increase of trading and(hopefully) prices on the market, even they will not buy from Europe.
• New Zealand plant-based meats company Sunfed Meats has confirmed it plans to shut up shop as its investors decided not to fund the business further. Founder and CEO Shama Sukul Lee said that Sunfed had faced challenges since Covid and needed “a capital injection”. The group, however, did not secure the funds, with its existing investors having “written Sunfed off”. Lee said: “Essentially, a lot of venture capitalist investors had jumped into the plant-based gold rush, thinking they could get fast valuation returns, similar to what they’re used to in the virtual world. This may be the best description of the hype and fall of the fake meat business, and it comes from inside!
• The German Agriculture Future Commission is proposing an increase in the reduced VAT rate on animal products. Unsurprisingly, Agriculture Minister Özdemir is open to the proposal, as he is strongly promoting fake meat. But it is an election year, other opinions also appear: the agricultural and food policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Albert Stegemann, is clearly critical, saying that the change is too radical: „It is completely wrong to use a political crowbar to push back animal husbandry in Germany…Otherwise our regional animal husbandry will continue to migrate and we will have to import even more meat.”

Taking into account the above mentioned information, we hope for glory days again in our industry!

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

COUNTRY	PIG(EUR)	TREND	PIGLET(EUR)	TREND	OBSERVATION
GERMANY	2,20 HW		85/25 kg
NETHERLANDS	1,95-2,22 HW		80/25 kg
BELGIUM	1,58 L		81/20 kg
DANEMARK	1,65 HW		93/30 kg
FRANCE	2,031 HW
ITALY	1,75 L115kg, 2,12 L160kg,		146/30 kg
SPAIN	1,75 – 1,81 L		91-115/20kg
PORTUGAL	2,53 HW
AUSTRIA	2,16 HW		106/31 kg
POLAND	1,52 – 1,75 L		91-137/20-30 kg		Partner info; no quotation
CROATIA	2,05 – 2,15 HW		106-115/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
SERBIA	2 L		120-130/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
CZECH R.	2,13 – 2,17 HW		70-76/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
SLOVAKIA	1,6 -1,67 L		107-113/25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
HUNGARY	1,63 – 1,76 L		107-113/25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
ROMANIA	1,61 – 1,71 L		107-117/25 kg		Partner info; no quotation