Irish pig prices remain stable with pig farmers receiving €1.64c/kg – €1.68c/kg in all the main export plants again this week. The last week has seen a number of Covid-19 clusters among a number of meat processing factory workers in the Midlands. Two of these factories, in Offaly and Kildare are major customers of Irish hams from the primary pig processing sector, and the unscheduled closures of these two plants will not help the domestic pigmeat trade.
There is a concern within the entire pig industry that any further outbreaks could continue to impact on worker health and safety and possible cause a disruption to pig throughput. The very nature of pig farming is that output is continuous and a disruption in processing capacity will cause many difficulties to the entire supply chain, especially at farm level. The EU pig trade is unchanged at an average price of €1.55c/kg, with the backlog of pigs being slowly tackled as factories get back to full capacity across mainland Europe.