Pig Market Update 30th September

The Irish pig price remains stable with farmers reporting receiving a price of between €1.60c/kg and up to €1.62c/kg. While this price is only a few cents per kilo above break even cost, and it is 40c/kg below the 2020 predicted price for pigs, it remains a relatively good price in comparison to the EU average price.

This depressed EU pig price is largely due to the difficulties that both Covid-19 has brought to production capacity in Germany, Holland Netherlands and France but in more recent times, the discovery of ASF in wild boar in Germany. Germany is the second largest producer of EU pork behind Spain, and the pig price fell to a low of €1.27c/kg in the aftermath of ASF being discovered. German and EU authorities are very hopeful that the important Asian import countries, such as China, will accept regionalisation and only exclude pork products from a small region where the ASF wild boar were detected. Irish pigmeat exporters should have a competitive advantage into these markets with high demand and supply limited due to the issues outlined above.