Dear readers,
The weather is good, the European football championship has started, let’s see some other good things for our industry:
- Against all green propaganda, according to Westfleisch Germany is still choosing meat. Johannes Steinhoff, Member of the Board of Westfleisch, stated that the buyer reach was 92.5%. This means that nine out of ten households continue to buy meat. And, even for the past four years, that rate has been consistently above 90%. Even more, the meat substitute market is developing in a completely different way and, in some cases 50% of the production from their own FarmWay Veggie Food operations had to be disposed of due to lack of demand.
- California-based cultivated meat maker SCiFi Foods last week ceased operations, bringing on an advisory firm to run a sale of its intellectual property and assets and entering into a voluntary Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors. CEO Joshua March wrote in a message: „It became effectively impossible for us to raise the tens of millions SCiFi needed for a small commercial launch; much less the hundreds of millions needed for full commercialization.”
- The Dutch Farmer–Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, BBB) is an agrarian and right-wing populist political party in the Netherlands, just entering in the government. Femke Wiersma is in the new cabinet for BBB as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature, while Jean Rummenie will become the State Secretary for Fisheries, Food Security and Nature.
Events calendar:
- The TecnoCarne is an annual trade fair for technologies in the meat industry, held at the São Paulo Expo Exhibition & Convention Center in São Paulo, Brasila, taking place 4 days from Tuesday, June 18 to Friday, June 21.
- The Alimentec in Bogota is considered one of the most important trade fairs for the food industry in Colombia and all of Latin America. This year it will take place 4 days, from Tuesday, 18.06 to Friday, 21.06.
- The „JFEX Summer JAPAN INT’L FOOD & BEVERAGE EXPO” in Tokyo is dedicated to showcasing food and beverages from around the world. „JFEX”, short for „Japan Food Expo”, takes place on 3 days from Wednesday, 19.06 to Friday, 21.06.
Arts and crafts:
- A climate activist was arrested for sticking an adhesive poster on a Monet painting at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris to draw attention to global warming. The woman is a member of „Riposte Alimentaire” (Food Response), a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production. How will this action improve the image of this activists?
From Paris to Berlin
The European parliamentary elections have shown the decreasing popularity of the greens, compensated by the resurrection of the extremist parties. Food is part of the cultural heritage of any nation, you cannot try to change it without consequences.
The case of the pig sector in the Netherlands is exemplary. While having one of the strongest slaughtering sector, the pig production moved to a different direction, due to the unfavorable conditions of the fattening sector. Dutch piglet exports during the first 21 weeks of 2024 amounted to 2,378,157 animals, an increase of 3.2% compared to the same period in 2023. Over the last 10 weeks, piglet export reached an average of 115,000 piglets per week. In the two previous years, over the same period, this was 110,000 piglets in 2023 and 105,000 piglets in 2022
- 46.2% of piglet exports were to Germany 1,099,044 piglets (-4.8%).
- Exports to Spain amounted to 937,794 piglets (+13.9%) compared to the same period in 2023.
- Shipments to Belgium decreased by 9.5%, to 186,894 piglets.
These 3 countries accounted for 93.5% of Dutch piglet export. I am sure that we will see a similar evolution of the Danish pig industry. It seems like the announced management changes of the Danish Crown cooperative are not enough to change the trend: the slaughterhouse of the cooperative reduced the anyhow lowest European quotation, while their competitor, Tican of Tönnies, maintains it, increasing the gap between the two market leaders to approximately 10 cents/kg.
Some countries, tired to wait for Germany, have started to show slightly increased quotations. I followed for many years the “small stock exchange” of the German pigs, it was a clear indicator of what the official one will do. For the last months, the evolution was not any more so correlated. Anyhow, it worth mentioning that the Friday quotation of this indicative market has shown a strong increase, one that would normally support an increase of close to 10 cents on the Wednesday official pig quotation. One bothering fact could be a wild boar carcass in the Groß-Gerau district of Hesse that has tested positive for African swine fever.
In neighboring France the drop in the seasonal supply of pigs is accentuated and is reflected in a drop in the slaughtering weight of almost 600 grams in June. France is also preparing for a major sports event: the Olimpic games are held in Paris, starting 26 of July. Will we see this trend moving from Paris to Berlin?
