Carcase weights have crept back up over the past few weeks, amid reports from the market of pigs being rolled again on a weekly basis by processors.
The average carcase weight across the four weeks to October 8 was 90.04kg for the EU-spec SPP, 2kg higher than over the previous four-week period (+1.99kg), and in line with carcase weights back in June.
The EU-spec APP average carcase weight also increased, up 1.54kg to 88.41kg for the four weeks to October 1.
Slaughter numbers dropped during the period, with clean pig slaughter for the four weeks ending October 8 estimated at 664,800 head, an average of 166,200 per week and 15,000 head down on the previous four weeks, according to AHDB estimates.
This was mostly the result of very low slaughter numbers in the week ending September 24, a four-day working week due to the Queen’s funeral, when only 138,500 clean pigs were slaughtered, 36,890 fewer than the average weekly kill in the rest of the period.
In the year to date, 7.1 million pigs have been processed, nearly 1% (64,200 head) down on the same period in 2021.
The average price for EU-spec finished pig over the period was 200.3p/kg, 1.3p/kg above the previous four-week average, as prices finally breached the £2/kg barrier in the week ending 17 September, and remained above this threshold throughout the period.
The EU-spec APP followed the trend set by the SPP of continued gains, topping 203.6p/kg in the week ending October 1. In the four weeks to October 1, the APP averaged 203.1p/kg, up 1.4p/kg (0.7%) on the previous period.
While breaching the 200p/kg mark will have been a welcome development by producers, prices still fall short of the cost of production, which rose to 240p/kg deadweight in Q2 2022 and was estimated at 224p/kg in September, AHDB trainee analyst Charlotte Forkes-Rees said.
