Very much a two tier trade and although the SPP eased back by 0.36p to stand at 200.36p, prices in Europe are roaring ahead with the influential German producer price going up by another 5 Euro Cents to stand at 2.00 EUR, painting a much happier picture than at the start of the year when the German price was as low as 1.23 EUR.
According to trade sources, the lack of pigs in the supply system is starting to bite and all being well this trend will continue as we move into the Christmas holiday period and beyond.
Unfortunately, apart from Cranswick who stood on at 178p/kg, this message does not seem to have got through to some of the larger players who made further reductions in their weekly prices with Woodheads dropping their price by 2p to 180p/kg and Karro to 167p/kg which means that their price is 33p below the SPP!
UK spot bacon prices are a touch firmer with lighter pigs trading at around 200p/kg and heavier spot bacon loads mainly between 184p and 190p/kg.
Cull Sows
Cull sow prices remain an important barometer to the health or otherwise of EU wide pig prices and it was good to hear UK cull sow buyers lifted their bids by around 5p/kg with the result that most UK sow export quotes are between 81p – 85p/kg, with the Euro trading at 86p on Friday.
Weaners
Contract weaner prices have remained at similar levels over the past seven days, but one or two buyers were looking at spot loads which were hard to move a few weeks ago.
Feed Market Trends
The UK ex farm spot feed wheat weekly averaging has eased from £244.30/t a week ago to £237.90 today.
This trend is reflected in futures prices with UK Feed wheat for January 2023 delivery now trading at £248/t and for September 2023 at £235/t.
Feed barley is also looking better value than it has been traded at £232/t for January 2023 delivery and £218/t for September next year.
Protein values have eased back with the price of soya oil in steep decline due to lower than expected biofuel requirements in the US and Hipro soya for January 2023 at £481/t and longer months saw May – October 2023 at £444/t.
Rapemeal is also easing back in sympathy with January – April 2023 quoted at £353/t and May – July next year looking a better bet at £295/t.
And finally…
Providing that cereal prices continue to decline and pig values follow the European upward trend for those producers who can hang on a little longer the cost and return ratio for pig production for those still in the red is looking better.
