The National Pig Association (NPA) has reported that pig price has been “remarkably stable of late”, and that this continued during the week ended March 30.
The EU-spec standard pig price (SPP) dropped back by 0.22p to stand at 211.39p/kg.
This continued the recent pattern of small dips and gains in quick succession, the NPA said, cancelling out the previous week’s 0.3p increase.
“The price index is now back virtually where it was at the end of January, having stayed within a tight band of 0.3p within the eight-week period,” the trade association for UK pig farmers said.
“It is now more than 4p behind where it was a year ago, when pig prices were still rising at a decent rate.”
The more volatile all pig price (APP), which includes premium pigs, virtually lost all the gains made during the previous week, the association said.
It dropped back by 1.5p during the week ended March 23 to stand at 211.73p/kg, leaving it fractionally ahead of the SPP for the week.
“The EU reference price gained another penny during the week ended March 24 to stand at 186.68p/kg, meaning the gap to the equivalent UK reference price has narrowed to 22p, compared with 37p gap of a few weeks ago,” the NPA said.
Slaughterings and feed
Estimated GB slaughterings for the week ended March 30 were 1,500 down on the previous week at 143,186.
This is 19,000 below the same week a year ago and nearly 27,000 below the 2022 figure.
Carcase weights are on the up again, averaging 91.35kg in the SPP sample during the week ended March 31, nearly 1kg up on the same week in 2023.
London feed wheat was quoted by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) on Wednesday (April 3) at around £170/t for May, similar to last week and £193/t for November 2024, slightly up on last week.
