Dear readers,

Some recent good news from our industry are collected below:

• In the past few years we heard only about fake meat consumption form Germany. Now, even there seems like the people rediscovers meat. This applies at least to purchases by private households. In the first quarter of 2024 they  bought more meat, sausage and poultry than in the same period last year. Overall, private demand for meat rose by almost 3%.
• U.S. Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill to ban the sale and production of cultivated meat in the state. The bill makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to manufacture, transport, commercialize or sell cultivated meat. Businesses can have their licenses revoked and receive an immediate stop-sale order.
• The U.S. Utah Department of Agriculture and Food announced it will provide up to $1 million in financial support to local food and agriculture businesses through the Utah Food Security Processing Grant.
• Kansas State University has received $1 million Seeding Solutions Grant from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) support to develop safe and rapidly deployable vaccines against  African Swine Fever. The grant from FFAR is supplemented by matching funds from Elanco Animal Health, K-State’s Office of the Vice President for Research, Kansas State University Innovation Partners, and MEDIAN Diagnostics Inc., totaling  $ 2,645,427.

Events calendar:

• The CIBUS International Food Exhibition is an annual trade fair dedicated to the diverse world of food, held at the Fiere di Parma exhibition center in Parma. The name CIBUS, derived from the Latin word for „food”, emphasizes the fair’s central importance to the food sector. The twenty-second edition is held on 4 days from Tuesday, 07.05.2024 to Friday, 10.05.2024.
• The CTCE CHINA is a significant trade fair in the field of tourism gastronomy, taking place annually in Shanghai since 2012. The acronym „CTCE” stands for „China International Aviation, Cruise and Railway Food & Beverage Exhibition”. CTCE China takes place on 3 days from Thursday, 09.05.2024 to Saturday, 11.05.2024.
• The IFEX Philippines is an annual trade fair for Philippine and Asian food products and services, held at the World Trade Center Metro Manila in Pasay. IFEX will take place on 3 days from Friday, 10. May to Sunday, 12. May 2024.
• The second edition of Grill Fest, the largest barbecue and grilling event in the east of Europe, will take place at Lagoo Snagov, near Bucharest, Romania. Over 200 barbecue chefs will prepare over 100 tons of meat for the attendance between 10 and 12 of May.

The Italian

The German reference price of the pigs has been unchanged for over 2 months. The level is good, but there was higher expectation since last year’s evolution.

Vion’s exit from the German market has left some extra pigs to the competition and postponed the need to increase the purchasing price of the pigs. The Dutch company’s decision was justified, but the environment in the Netherlands may be even worst for the slaughtering business. The main challenge is the manure treatment and environmental restrictions may determine a 30-40% shrinkage of the pig herd, according to estimations. We have seen more and more pigs sold to the German slaughterhouses from the Netherlands, due to a higher price level. How will the large Dutch slaughterhouses react to the reducing number of pigs? We will see…

Last Wednesday the German reference price was stable, but showing a 5 cents tendency to increase, as weather improves and European Football Championship is closing. In the same time, German meat sales have been affected by another issue.

The Italian ham manufacturers achieve annual sales of around 1.7 billion euros with Parma ham. That’s why the Consortium for Prosciutto di Parma is calling for the army to be deployed against the wild boars. In addition, financial resources for biosecurity, traps and fences should be increased and more hunters should be deployed. In the Emilia Romagna region, which also includes Parma, the capital of ham production, there have been 105 cases of ASF in wild boars so far. This is already affecting the export of Parma ham. Italy wants to kill a million wild boars with the help of the army in the next three to five years, thereby reducing the population by 60 to 80 percent.

Where is the connection between the two issues? Since the recent ASF restrictions in Italy, the traditional ham producers are buying less hams from Germany, determining a reduction of the price of this item. You have understand how thigs are done by the Italian.

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	1,93-2,22 HW		77,5/25 kg
BELGIUM	1,58 L		75/20 kg
DANEMARK	1,61-1,65 HW		93/30 kg
FRANCE	2,015 HW
ITALY	1,62-1,64 L115kg, 2,0-2,02 L160kg,		146,5/30 kg
SPAIN	1,75 – 1,81 L		91-106/20kg
PORTUGAL	2,53 HW
AUSTRIA	2,16 HW		109/31 kg
POLAND	1,5 – 1,85 L		92-137/20-30 kg		Partner info; no quotation
CROATIA	2,05 – 2,15 HW		106-115/ 25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
SERBIA	2,1 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	1,68 – 1,79 L		107-113/25 kg		Partner info; no quotation
ROMANIA	1,61 – 1,71 L		107-117/25 kg		Partner info; no quotation