The National Pig Association (NPA) has said that the pig price index has been “extremely stable” over the past two months despite recent setbacks.
It is 0.35p behind where it was at the end of January and is now nearly 7p behind a year ago, when pig prices were still rising at a “decent rate”.
The EU-spec SPP fell for the second week in a row, dropping back by a further 0.38p during the week ended April 6 to stand at 211.01p/kg, meaning it has now lost 0.6p over the past fortnight.
The more volatile all pig price (APP) lost a further 0.57p to to stand at 211.15p/kg during the week ended March 30, meaning it has now lost more than 2p in the last fortnight.
This left it fractionally behind the SPP for the week.
The EU reference price gained another 1.2p during the week ended March 31 to stand at 187.88p/kg, closing the gap to the equivalent UK reference price to 21p, compared with 37p during the week ended February 4, when the EU reference price stood at 171.5p/kg.
March UK clean pig slaughterings were 10% down on a year ago, the latest official Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) slaughter figures show.
A total 805,000 clean pigs were slaughtered in the UK in March, compared with 894,000 in March 2023. UK pigmeat production was 8.6%, 75,000t, lower than in March 2023, as carcase weights averaged 90.4kg, slightly down on February.
Carcase weights inched up again, averaging 91.68kg in the SPP sample during the week ended April 7, nearly 1kg up on the same week in 2023.
Cereal prices continue to edge up. London feed wheat was quoted by AHDB on Wednesday (April 10) at around £174/t for May, £4 up on last week and £195/t for November 2024, £2 up on last week.
