President-elect Donald Trump announced his pick for Secretary of Agriculture, choosing Brooke Rollins. She previously served as the acting director of the United States Domestic Policy Council under President Trump in his first term. Rollins was most recently President and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank founded in 2021 to promote…

Lyle Jones, Genesus China Sales Manager According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the national breeding sow herd was 40.73 million at the end of October, an increase of 0.3% month-on-month in October.  At the same time, national pig slaughter fell by 1.6% year-on-year but has increased by 2% for two consecutive months.…

Paul Anderson, Genesus Southeast Asia Paul.Anderson_GenesusSoutheastAsia@outlook.com Thailand Thailand produces more pigs, but consumption sluggish Pig production in Thailand is expected to increase 4.7% to 18.3 million heads this year, while, demand will rise by only 2.5% to 1.35 million tonnes and continue to be lower, according to a research. Conducted by Kasikorn Bank, it said…

Fernando Ortiz-H IberoAmerican Business Development Manager After the summer seasonal peak of prices above 50 Mexican pesos/kg ($1.13 – 1.15 USD/lb), the national average price for liveweight hogs in Mexico has returned to the mid-40s, with a national average price for this week of $44.66 Mexican pesos/kg (US$1.00/lb). As always, the higher the price of…

Spencer Long, Genesus Director of Marketing The Canadian industry remains more of the same from the last time I wrote a report. Prices remain stubbornly low. The good news for many producers who also crop farm is harvest data across much of the country looks to be doing okay. Canada is projected to produce 34.3…

Spencer Long, Genesus Director of Marketing The tribulations of this industry seemingly continue unabated until we fix the very problem we all know exists but seemingly refuse to change. US pork consumption has decreased and been flatline since the 1970s when Nixon was President. Overall, US meat consumption has increased 50 lbs. per capita since…

Lyle Jones, Genesus China Sales Manager The average weekly price of live pigs in China has been declining for three weeks in a row, settling in at 18.01 yuan/kg ($1.14/lb.) on September 27, 2024, representing a 4.5% drop in pig price from 18.86 RMB per kilogram on September 20th. Large-scale farms have been ramping up…

Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Italy & Portugal mvega@genesus.com Autumn has just arrived, and Spain continues to have pork prices above the rest of the EU. Last Thursday, the Mercolleida market closed at €1.704/kg of live weight. Source: Mercolleida Prices are slowly decreasing due to the increased supply driven by lower temperatures, following a…

Paul Anderson, Genesus Southeast Asia Paul.Anderson_GenesusSoutheastAsia@outlook.com Philippines ASF Vaccine The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) to a Vietnam-produced ASF Vaccine. Issuing a CPR by the FDA is a green light that a company can now market, import, export, distribute, and sell the approved product. Hence, the conditional…

Simon Grey, General Manager Europe Across Europe farm gate pig price is following its usual seasonal decrease. Average (estimated) price for Europe is €1.59 per kg liveweight. What is surprising is the difference between country. Denmark                              €1.11 Belgium                                 €1.42 France                                     €1.46 Netherlands                      €1.53 Germany                               €1.56 Poland                                    €1.59 Romania                               €1.67 Spain                                    €1.72 United…

Fernando Ortiz-H. Ibero-American Business Development The national average price index remains at $39.34 Mexican pesos/kg (US$0.89/lb), indicating that during the last six months of 2024, there has been steadiness in the liveweight price in the Mexican pork market. It is important to highlight that important producing areas such as estate of Jalisco and estate of…

The summer months continue to not bring much positivity to the Canadian pork industry. Prices remain annoyingly low; large quantities of hogs continue flowing south of the border to be harvested. Between January and April of this year, exports to the U.S. were up 149,000 head compared to the same period last year. The bright side…

Philippe Mallétroit – Director for France and Africa Hog market price After a market very quiet in Europe in June, the pork price in Germany fell sharply by 10 cents per kg during the first week of July. This has led to price declines in other European countries. In France, the pork price increased by…

Lyle Jones, China Sales Manager As of August 5, 2024, China slaughter pig prices have soared to a new high of 20.66 yuan/kg ($1.31/lb.), up from its low for the year of 11.98 yuan/kg ($0.76/lb.) back on March 18, 2024. In Guangdong province in southern China, slaughter pigs can be sold for as high as…

Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Italy & Portugal mvega@genesus.com We are in the midst of summer with typical seasonal temperatures, experiencing “heat waves.” Although it has been milder than expected, it is still summer, which means the heat is causing pigs to slow down, resulting in a reduced supply. Despite the gradual decline in…

Paul Anderson, Genesus Southeast Asia Paul.Anderson_GenesusSoutheastAsia@outlook.com The Philippines Overview As of 31 March 2024, the country’s swine inventory was estimated at 9.96 million heads. This was 2.5 percent lower than the previous year’s same-period count of 10.21 million heads. About 70.4 percent of the country’s swine population came from small-hold (backyard) farms, while the remaining…

Simon Grey, General Manager Europe, Genesus Pig prices across Europe remain high enough for pig farming to remain profitable. As always when this is the case pig farmers are happy. What is the only thing we can know from this situation? That at some time in the future (1 or 2 years we can assume)…

Fernando Ortiz, Genesus, Ibero-America Business Development Manager Mexican Pork Market Prices Trend (Last Month) The national average liveweight price has reacted positively in recent weeks, positioning itself at 48.70 pesos/kg ($1.24/lb), with peaks of 51 pesos ($1.30/lb) in the States of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Querétaro, Michoacán and Yucatán. The biggest increase has occurred in Sonora, which…

Spencer Long, Director of Marketing Genesus The early summer months have not brought relief to an already beleaguered Canadian pork industry. The futures do not look positive, and the issue in the eastern part of Canada for shackle space persists with hogs having to go to the U.S. for slaughter. One bright spot has been…

Lyle Jones, Director of Sales, China The price of slaughter pigs in China have broken 20 yuan/kg ($1.27/lb.) after two years of depressed prices following irrational expansion after the ASF outbreak. According to the pig price index of Xinmu Network on June 11, the national average price has reached 19.3 yuan / kg and the average…

Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Italy & Portugal mvega@genesus.com A year ago, we observed the market evolving in an unprecedented manner. This seems to be setting a trend for how our sector is transforming and adapting to ongoing changes that influence production and the meat industry. The price at Mercolleida is 1.8 €/kg live…

Paul Anderson, Genesus Southeast Asia paul.anderson_genesussoutheastasia@outlook.com Thailand Oversupply suppresses live pig price in Thailand Pig production in Thailand jumped 28% year-on-year to 5.8 million heads in Q1/2024, while the price of live pigs dropped 23% to THB 68/kg (USD 1.8), according to The Thai Swine Raisers Association, the country’s representative of pig producers. The oversupply…

Simon Grey, General Manager Europe, Genesus Inc. Sitting On a Time Bomb! Today across Europe pig prices remain high and pig farmers are making money as are processors. Everyone is happy!!! We are in the good bit of the pig cycle!!! There is even investment in farms, but mostly to comply with new legislation that…

Fernando Ortiz-H, Ibero-America Business Development Genesus Inc. The national average liveweight price in Mexico is MX$36.70/kg (US$0.98/lb) JALISCO            $35.20/kg (US$0.94/lb) GUANAJUATO   $35.75/kg (US$0.96/lb) YUCATÁN                      $46.00/kg (UD$1.23/lb) SONORA                  $29.83/kg (USD$0.79/lb) Mexican Pork Industry Vision Ahead The Mexican Pork Producers Organization (Opormex) has recently presented its Vision 2035, marking a significant step for the pork industry…

Philippe Mallétroit – Director for France and Africa Pig inventory in Europe IFIP (French Pig Institute) recently published an article about pig inventory in Europe at the end of 2023. After a massive decapitalization these last two years, following shutdown of many pig herds until first part of 2023, the number of pigs stabilizes (-0.6%…

Spencer Long, Director of Marketing Genesus The Canadian inventory of all hogs and pigs was reported for January 1, 2024. The report shows it is down 1 percent from January 1, 2023, and down 3 percent from January 1, 2022. The losses incurred have been detrimental for the industry in Canada which has resulted in…

Lyle L. Jones, Director of Sales, China Tribute to Dr. E. Wayne Johnson International Pig Expert Dr. E. Wayne Johnson famous Swine Veterinarian and International pig expert passed away on April 16, 2024, in Yancheng, Jiangsu, China. Dr. Johnson grew up on a livestock farm in Illinois and received his DVM from the University of…

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…

Paul Anderson, Genesus Southeast Asia Paul.Anderson_GenesusSoutheastAsia@outlook.com Thailand Thailand cuts supplies Thailand planned to cut 450,000 piglets from March to August in a bid to boost a live pig price that has been falling below the cost for more than a year. The Thai Swine Raisers Association, national grouping of pig producers, called for pig farms…

Simon Grey, General Manager Europe Farm gate pig prices across Europe have increased very slightly over the past few weeks. Based upon the laws of supply and demand, this must mean demand continues to outstrip supply. Pig farming is currently profitable. How long will this last? Ours is a strange business. As farmers we can…

Fernando Ortiz-H., Genesus Ibero-America Business Development Manager Although some ag economists predict a growth of 3% in the Mexican pork industry, we believe that, even if there is an increase in productivity, with the current rate of sow liquidation, it could even generate a shrinkage of the sector. The arrival of Bachoco in the pork…

Spencer Long, Director of Marketing Genesus The Canadian inventory of all hogs and pigs was reported for January 1, 2024. The report shows it is down 1 percent from January 1, 2023, and down 3 percent from January 1, 2022. The losses incurred have been detrimental for the industry in Canada which has resulted in…

Philippe Mallétroit – Director for France and Africa Hog Market After two years of decline, the European pig inventory is stable. Due to excess slaughter capacity, slaughterhouses compete vigorously to meet their pork needs. Pork will be more expensive in the upcoming months. Waiting trade increase, packing plants use cold storage. In France, needs from…

Lyle L. Jones, Director of Sales, China What’s going on in the China Hog Market. There is no more important holiday in China than Chinese New Year (February 10th) and Spring Festival. Normally, Chinese consumers stock up on pork for the holidays driving up pig prices and producers enjoy their highest margins. This year something…

Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Portugal and Italy We have closed the year 2023 and certainly, its results have had nothing to do with those of 2022. It has been an excellent year for production: We have had record values from Mercolleida with an average of €1,871/kg live weight compared to €1,513/kg live weight…

Paul Anderson, Genesus Southeast Asia paul.anderson_genesussoutheastasia@outlook.com Philippines The Philippines local swine industry is on-track in increasing the local pork supply in the country as the repopulation of swine farms is set to increase and continue in the coming months. It’s no secret that the local pork production was affected due to continues infection of African Swine Fever (ASF) in…

Simon Grey General Manager Europe, Genesus Inc. We are our own worst enemies!!! Anyone looking at the weekly global market report from another industry would ask “why would anyone be a pig farmer?” Week after week of how much money farmers are losing in this country or that country. Complaining about legislation, red tape, government,…

Fernando Ortiz-H. Ibero-America Business Development Markets Liveweight hog prices in the Mexican market The national average price of liveweight pigs has been lowered in the first weeks of 2024 by 4.21%, reaching 33.34 pesos/kg (USD 88 cent. /lb) compared to 34.85 pesos/kg (USD 86 cent. /lb) by the end of December 2023. However, over the…

Allan Bentley, Sales & Technical Manager I asked Jim Long, and he consented, if I could write a commentary besides my normally scheduled one. I had a lot of responses from my last comments. All the comments I received were positive about my criticism of the Pork Industry leaders. However, I was told by most…

Spencer Long, Director of Marketing Genesus After a disastrous 2023 financially, Canadian producers are looking for a better 2024. The USDA projects that Canada’s pork production will decline a further -1.2% in 2024 and Farm Credit Canada anticipates producers are going to face tight margins until at least the summer. In the last couple of…

Philippe Mallétroit – Director for France and Africa Hog Market In France, as elsewhere in Europe, the pork meat trade, mainly linked to holiday season at the end of the year, remained dynamic for a large part of December on the domestic market and export. Pig slaughtering’s remained fluid, especially more than the offer remains…

Allan Bentley, Sales & Technical Manager Being this is a market commentary let start with that. Iso wean price last Friday was almost $35/head delivered. Last year it was $61. Everyone has a different breakeven, but I think we can agree that a sow farm selling iso weans is losing at least $5/head. After about…

Lyle L. Jones, Director of Sales, China China’s live pig market has been trending downward since early October when slaughter pig prices were 16.2 yuan/kg., ($1.00/lb.) to 14.5 yuan/kg ($0.92/lb.) on December 22nd. Over this period, there has been a fair amount of volatility and frequent price fluctuations. For example, last Friday’s close is up…

Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Italy & Portugal We have reached the end of the year, and it has indeed been a notably different year. From a production perspective: Price: We started 2023 with a value well above the past 10 years, at €1.65/kg live weight. Entering spring, we achieved an unprecedented price of…

Simon Grey, General Manager Europe Pig price across Europe is falling back from the highs we sew in the middle of the year. However, across Europe pig price remains high enough for pig production to be profitable and therefore sustainable!! Profitability is the number one requirement for sustainability. Sustainability is a word that is impossible…

Paul Anderson, Genesus Southeast Asia paul.anderson_genesussoutheastasia@outlook.com Philippines Dubbed as the longest Christmas-celebrating country, Filipinos take Christmas celebrations to the fullest. Shopping malls extend their operation hours up to midnight. Christmas carols start to play as early as the “BER” month starts, and last till January of the following year. This 2023, the Pork consumption per…

Fernando Ortiz – Ibero-America Business Development Genesus Mexico last four years pork market Taking a more in-depth look at the profit margins for producers over the last 4 years, that is, the pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic period, what we currently see is a rearrangement of prices determined by a more stable market, with necessary adjustments,…

Spencer Long of Genesus The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) expects fewer Canadian pigs to be produced in 2024. The USDA projects that the Canadian swine herd will contract, due in part to decreased domestic processing capacity (Olymel plant closures) and reduced U.S. demand. The reality for the Canadian industry is losses continue, and…

Philippe Mallétroit – Director for France and Africa Hog Market In October (from week 40 to 43), 1 408 455 pigs have been slaughtered in France (zone Uniporc). Last year on the same period, 1 480 598 were slaughtered. It is a drop of 4.9 % or 18 040 slaughtered pigs less per week. Same…

Allan Bentley, Sales & Technical Manager I am going to veer off of markets with this commentary, as we know where the market is and according to the futures, we have 6 more months of losses.  I raise F1 gilts for Genesus in Nebraska. I just went through my numbers and thought I would share…

Lyle Jones, Director of Sales, China China Hog Market- A firsthand perspective We are just back from attending Leman China Conference in Xian and 10 days in China with firsthand perspective of the hog market there. Slaughter Pig Price: National average slaughter pig price closed last Friday October 27th at 14.56 yuan/kg ($0.92/lb.) its lowest…

Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Italy & Portugal We had been for 13 weeks with a value never seen (2.03 € / kg live) and in a few weeks we are at values like a year ago 1.74 € / kg live. In eleven weeks, the price has been falling until this week that…

Paul A. Anderson, Genesus Southeast Asia paul.anderson_genesussoutheastasia@outlook.com Philippines We attnded the 27th Pinoy Pork challenge in Manila which attracted up to 600 attendees, quite an impressive turnout. A great opportunity to meet up and get industry updates. Earlier this month we visited the AgriLink show in Manila, we had a couple of good days meeting…

Simon Grey, General Manager European Region Pig price in Europe has come back 10% to 12% since it peaked in July. However declining feed price means good profitability for most regions of Europe. Good for today for sure, but what about the future? The pig cycle is the pig cycle, always has been and we…

Fernando Ortiz-H., Genesus Ibero-America Business Development Manager Looking at the current market Mexico has increased its weekly purchases of pork from the United States by 14%, with an average of more than 15,370 tons per week arriving in the country from its northern neighbor. Accumulating an amount close to 615,000 tons of imported American pork…

Spencer Long of Genesus A new report by Ernst & Young (EY) suggests plant-based fake meat protein will grow significantly over the coming decades. EY’s forecast estimates global plant-based fake meat protein will reach $139 billion USD in sales by 2035. This number is dramatically higher than the $16.5 billion USD in sales for 2021.…

Philippe Mallétroit – Director for France and Africa Hog Market Since 31st of July, the hog market has lost 0.31 € per kg carcass to be at 2.04 € currently. Many reasons of this decrease: inflation, mixed weather during the month of August, a loss of competitiveness on the major export markets… The situations are…

Allan Bentley, Sales & Technical Manager According to Iowa State we have losses on the books for 12 continuous months in hog production. I am not sure, but I don’t remember 12 straight months of bleeding red ink. If the futures are indicative of the cash hog prices, we will have 4 months more of…

Lyle Jones, Director of Sales, China China’s Top 20 Pig Enterprises lost 16.4 billion Yuan ($2,245 Billion USD) in the first half of 2023! What’s more shocking is the total debt of 450 billion Yuan ($61.6 billion USD)! The 20 marketed 77.23 million head in the first six months at an average loss of $30…

Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Italy & Portugal After seventeen weeks maintaining the highest value of the market in Spain, 2.03 €/kg, the price of live pork has been falling week by week, to 1.96 €/kg. It is still a very high value, around €2, but already downwards. Although the weights are still high,…

Paul Anderson, General Manager South East Asia – International Sales Manager Philippines The swine industry in the Philippines during the third quarter of 2023 has shown a mix of challenges and opportunities. The industry continues to grapple with the aftermath of the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak that began in 2019, affecting production levels and…

Fernando Ortiz, Ibero-America Business Development Manager Fluctuations in the Mexican Pork Market: Influences and the Need for Adaptation Over the past 10 weeks, the Mexican pork market has witnessed significant fluctuations in liveweight prices. These variations can be attributed to a range of factors, with key influences stemming from domestic demand, imports, and health challenges.…

Spencer Long of Genesus The summer months have not brought much happiness to the Canadian industry. Costs are still high, and prices have improved for producers for now but the futures are not looking favorable. The reality of months upon months of massive losses for so many is beyond devastating. Olymel which is one of…

Philippe Mallétroit – Director for France Hog Market The situation is very similar currently in Europe, there are few offers but the demand is satisfied with that. Consumption stagnates in many places for different reasons as inflation, elevated temperatures and maybe change in eating habits. Price stability therefore seems to be a compromise between low…

Allan Bentley, Sales & Technical Director, USA Cut-outs are on top of $110. That has raised everyone’s interest and therefore prices of cash hogs over 75 cents live. Higher if you have the cut-out in your formula. We have the hog market in the black for the first time in 10 months. Summer prices usually…

Lyle Jones, Director of Sales China As we enter the second half of 2023, the phrase “there is no joy in Mudville” comes to mind when trying to describe the pig market in China. Of course, this phase is a line from the poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer. It describes the…

Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Italy & Portugal Summer arrived and we have been repeating thirteen weeks in the market price with the highest value ever reached, 2,03 €/kg live weight. The market is increasingly looking for higher weights. We also have the highest weight at this time of the year, with more than…

Philippe Mallétroit – Director for France Hog Market : stable prices After having dropped by 0.227 € since last 3rd of April, the hog market price has stabilized at 2.153 € per kg carcass. During this period there were 5 holidays and therefore for several weeks the slaughterings were reduced to 4 days of killing…

Paul Anderson, General Manager South East Asia – International Sales Manager Philippines As of March 31, 2023, the swine inventory in the Philippines stood at an estimated 10.18 million heads, which represented a 4.2 percent increase compared to the same period the previous year when the count was 9.77 million heads. The majority, approximately 76.5…

Simon Grey, General Manager Europe Pig price across Europe remains at record high levels. Supply and demand is working and creating a high pig price. There are some small signs of some farms that took advantage of low price to destock and renovate are now confident to restock. However, a lot of farms that have…

Fernando Ortiz-Hermida – Genesus Ibero-America Business Development   Last week we attended the World Pork Expo, as we do every year. However, in this year’s version, the almost total absence of Mexican pig producers was notorious. Mexico, like its neighboring colleagues, the United States and Canada, has not escaped the price crisis in the domestic…

Spencer Long of Genesus The Canadian crop outlook for 2023 is looking promising with a projection of the second largest wheat crop in history. Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture report a projected output at 35.8 million tonnes, second only to the 2013-14 total of 37.5 million tonnes and 6% higher…

Allan Bentley, Sales & Technical Director, USA Many of my discussions with Jim Long revolve around markets. That is actually how we met when I answered an email. Always remaining respectful I have disagreed at times. Not lately. My only disagreement would be that he says we are going to lose 300,000 sows. I am…

Lyle Jones, Director of Sales, China China’s Hog Market is a tough one for producers. A quick glance at the price trend graph below shows slaughter prices have remained all but unchanged for the last 30 days. Last Friday’s close was RMB 14.28/kg., ( $0.91/lb.) virtually unchanged from one month ago. According to the monitoring…

Mercedes Vega, General Director for Spain, Italy and Portugal We have started the month of May and if we analyze the situation, the truth is that due to various circumstances that have occurred over time, all the molds that have governed the pork market in Spain, the EU and perhaps worldwide are being broken. The…

Paul Anderson, General Manager South East Asia – International Sales Manager  – Genesus Inc. Last week we attended the 29th National Hog Convention and Trade Exhibition in Manila, Philippines, Genesus Philippines produced an excellent booth with a focus on meat quality produced at a competitive cost of production, Genesus Pork was cooked in many ways and served every day…

Fernando Ortiz-Hermida Genesus Ibero-America Business Development Markets The national prices of liveweight hog and pork carcass continue to contract week by week, these movements are due to a series of factors, such as the slow pace of national demand, higher weights in slaughtered animals and although international purchases have recently decreased at 2% weekly, the…

Spencer Long of Genesus With pork prices at record levels or approaching new records throughout Europe – Canadian producers are still reeling. Losses continue, and pain persists. We need a pendulum swing. The dramatic difference in price between Canada and Europe should in theory result in more Canadian pork being exported as more Asian buyers…