Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Italy & Portugal
mvega@genesus.com
This week, the price at Mercolleida closed at €1.80/kg live weight (88.20¢ liveweight/lb. USD). This is below the price from a year ago, but significantly higher than the usual price for this time of year.
However, the price of 20 kg (44 lbs.) piglets is higher than last year in the Mercolleida reference market, to which bonuses must be added, making this value 19% higher than in 2023. This is causing empty fattening farms despite the high demand for piglets because at what price must these pigs be sold to be profitable?
This shortage of piglets, consequently also of finished pigs in the market, will cause prices to rise, but how far is difficult to predict. What seems clear is that weights are increasing year by year. We are now at weights of 121 kg (265 lbs.) compared to 114 kg (250 lbs.) five years ago.
The price of raw materials is decreasing, and consequently, the production cost of both piglets and finished pigs is decreasing. This is a factor that can help compensate companies that have their own production but need to buy piglets to maintain their production goals.
The industry still cannot pass on these values to the meat, but it is evidently in a better situation, although exports are not being of great help.
Categorised in: Featured News, Global Markets
This post was written by Genesus