The SPP appears to be back on an upward track with the news that it had gone up by 1.65p after last week’s disappointing drop and now stands at 201.85p.
Although this index price is relatively slow to go up or down at least it is now travelling in the right direction!
European prices have generally stood on with the influential German producer price quoted at 2.00 EUR which is equivalent to 174p.
With UK pig producers needing to achieve COP levels in the region of 220p/kg imports remain very strong competitors on the home market, but some more levelling up of the UK pig meat prices is needed to put producers back in the black.
With numbers continuing to tighten spot bacon availability has been very tight with the majority of pigs being sold on contract and most spot deals have been in the 200p/kg region according to spec.
Please note that UK weekly contribution prices will no longer be quoted in this report due to the difficulty in obtaining accurate contribution price data, but hopefully this will lead to more competitive prices in the longer term… we shall see!
Cull Sows
Demand for cull sows remains firm with numbers extremely tight, but despite a fall in the value of the Euro from 88.8p a week ago to 87.55p today prices have remained competitive with export deals generally agreed between 87p – 91p/kg.
Weaners
Weaner numbers are continuing to slide reflecting lower fertility levels following the very hot summer last year as well as the exodus of producers from the industry, many of which will not be replaced.
As a result, the weaner market has seen a significant reduction in the number of pigs produced and prices remain bullish.
Feed Market Trends
The latest UK spot ex farm feed wheat price is continuing to move on a downward track with the most recent weekly average quoted at £217/t compared with £221/t seven days earlier. This bearish trend is also reflected in the futures markets with feed wheat for February traded at £227/t and £221/t for September.
Feed barley prices are also continuing to head south with February quoted at £217/t and September delivery only a gnat’s whisker above £200/t with deals agreed at £206/t.
Protein prices remain relatively bullish with Hipro soya meal for February at £549/t and June – October at £486/t.
Rapemeal values remain relatively volatile trading for February – April in the £364/t region.
And finally…
Red Tractor are reminding the pig industry of the need to maintain the highest possible standards to prevent a scourge of ASF or any other notifiable diseases hitting these shores and to remain vigilant as far as visitors to pig units are concerned – because this is one more challenge that pig industry would find very hard to cope with just as things are starting to improve!
