Dear readers,

We will maintain the habit to start with the good news:

• U.S. pork export sales soared to their highest level of the year, driven by strong demand from Mexico and China. In a surprising movement, U.S. red meat is finally gaining traction in Cuba thanks in part to expansion of private sector buying. The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) recently held a seminar for Cuban buyers and U.S. companies interested in capitalizing on this opportunity. U.S. pork exports to Cuba are up about 400% compared to the same time last year.
• Murphy Family Ventures and Smithfield announced a definitive agreement  that will re-establish the Murphy family farming business, founded by Wendell Murphy in 1962. Murphy, largely credited with creating the modern swine industry, was one of the largest independent pork producers in the U.S. Murphy Family Ventures and Smithfield will establish a Murphy-owned farming business with ownership of 150,000 sows and capacity to produce approximately 3.2 million hogs annually for Smithfield’s fresh pork operations. Production services, including the supply of feed and transportation services, will be provided by Smithfield.
• Canadian meat industry groups Canadian Meat Council (CMC) and Canadian Pork Council (CPC)  celebrated the country’s new Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), after the completion of trade negotiations between Ottawa and Jakarta: “This landmark agreement represents a significant opportunity for Canada’s meat industry to expand its presence in one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the Indo-Pacific region”
• The Spanish Serrano Ham Consortium (CJSE) has released the sector-specific export figures for cured hams and shoulders up to the 3rd quarter of 2024, a period in which a total of 42,830.50 tons were exported, an increase of 1.24% compared to the same period of 2023. The total value of 514,219,713.23 euros meant an increase of 12.08% in relation to the previous year.
• “The U.S. is the third largest consumer of pork products and represents 20% of global production, so this effort has enormous ramifications across the industry, individual producers and people shopping at grocery stores” Gabriel Hamer, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Entomology, is leading the team of researchers utilizing emerging genetic technology to create a next-generation surveillance method to protect the U.S. pork industry from African swine fever virus, ASFV. The four-year, $800,000 grant project is funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The team’s goal is to advance tools that quantify contact between domestic swine and soft-bodied ticks that are known vectors of ASFV. The overarching mission of the project is to prevent ASFV from establishing itself in the U.S.

Cevapcici

            Again, the most of the good news are coming from the North American markets, while in Europe we are struggling to maintain optimism between the pig farmers.

For instance ,in Belgium, 175 pig farms have so far decided to voluntarily participate in the Flemish government’s purchase program, in a two-phase offer made by The Flemish Land Agency (VLM) to pig farms to voluntarily exit the pig production. In the first phase, thousands of pig farms were approached, and in the second phase, with slightly modified requirements, almost all pig farms in Flanders were eligible. The managers willing to quit are on average 57 years old. 156 of them were part of the first phase. 22 million euros are already needed to compensate the former pig farmers. The second phase will last until May 2025. Only then will it be possible to conclude the final number of pigs getting out of the market.

Exclusivity:

As mentioned many times, the newsletter is mostly based on open sources, but I also have a number of contributors from different markets, providing valuable and exclusive information. One such info is coming from the Serbian market.

In the Balkan region the countries of the former Yugoslavia are well known for their traditional dishes containing red meat in abundance. While the menu also has some Turkish influence, it mostly consists of steaks and 2 specific products: pleskavica and cevapcici. Some of you may know them from your Croatian holidays, but they are part of the Serbian gastronomy also.

Serbia, as a non-EU country, has some particularities related to the pig, piglet and pork market. As al Est and Central European countries, it is not self-sufficient in this items, but it also requires licenses for the import of this products, a procedure that became even more complicated as the African Swine Fever extended in Europe.

For many years Serbia was also the most expensive pig market. The last weeks price evolution took an unbelievable turn, going down, while the pork consumption is peaking. In the past the state was mediating between the farmers and the slaughterhouses and issuing import licenses just to compensate for the difference between the pig offers and the needs of the meat industry. Now slaughterhouses are trying to reduce even more the price and the Ministry of Agriculture is pulling back from the role of mediator, so Thursday the pig farmers unanimously decided to stop the deliveries to the slaughterhouses, as a sign of protest. What will happen to the cevapcici?