Weekly pig prices and slaughter data for Great Britain.
The EU-spec SPP has stablised after last week’s significant 3.7p reversal, losing just 0.26p to stand at 193.19p/kg during the week ended January 3, but with carcase weights soaring to close to record levels.
The reversal means the price index remains at its lowest point since July 2022. The SPP has now lost nearly 15p since August 2025 and is more than 11p below where it stood during the same week in 2025.
The downward trend is driven by various factors, including plummeting EU prices. The latest Tribune EU market round-up showed prices, once again plummetimg across Europe last week, led by a 15 eurocents drop in the German VEZG price, with Belgium also seeing a huge reduction and another big drop in Spain.
Even before these latest price drops, the headline EU-UK price gap had grown to record levels. The EU reference price (Grade S) lost another 1.6p to stand at 134.76p/kg during the week ended January 4, pushing the gap to the equivalent UK price to nearly 64p, compared with typical levels of around 20p.
The domestic market is also characterised by ample supplies. The latest AHDB estimate showed GB clean pig slaughterings at 135,649 head during the week ended January 4, very slightly below year-earlier levels.
The big story is the rocketing average carcase weights we are seeing, as pigs have been rolled week by week, also driven by various factory issues, not helped by the further disruption caused by last week’s wintry weather.
The average weight in the SPP sample for the week ending January 10 increased by a furher 1.28kg on the week to stand at 95.76g. This was 4kg above year earlier levels and only fractionally below the record level recorded at the height of the pig backlog in January 2022.
London feed wheat futures were quoted by AHDB on January 14 at £161/t for January, and £165/t for March, slightly down on last week.