Weekly pig prices and slaughter data for Great Britain.
The EU-spec SPP continues its downwards trajectory, losing a further 1.36p to stand at at 198.46p/kg, during the week ended December 6.
The SPP has lost 2.2p over the past fortnight and 9.6p since early August. It is nearly 8p below where it stood a year ago.
Alongside ample supplies, the biggest driver for the downward price trend has been falling EU prices, a situation made worse by Spain’s ASF outbreak and the imposition of export restrictions, albeit mainly focused on Catalonia.
The latest Tribune EU market round-up showed the Spanish price lost nearly 25 eurocents, due to the impact of export bans. Elsewhere, there were further significant falls in Denmark and the Netherlands, alongside a welcome uptick in Ireland, while the German price stood on.
Even before any impact of Spain’s ASF outbreak, the EU reference price (Grade S) lost more than 3p to stand at 149.2p/kg during the week ended November 30, pushing the gap to the equivalent UK price up to a new record, beyond 53p.
AHDB’s estimated GB slaughterings for the week ended December 6 were 3,000 up on the previous week, at 176,118 head, but were a massive 23,400 down on the 2024 figure, suggesting there has been negiligible pull-forward ahead of Christmas this year. The figure was but nearly 11,000 head up on 2023, however. As always, these estimates are potentially subject to further revision.
Average carcase weights were fractionally down on the week, but remained at the elevated level of 93.16kg in the SPP sample, 3.6kg above year-earlier levels.
London feed wheat futures were quoted by AHDB on December 10 at £164/t for January, and £167/t for March, slightly down on last week.