The share of retail pork prices received by producers remains at the highest level since January 2014 on the back of continuing excellent producer prices.
The March figure was unchanged at 40.5%, an extraordinary 10 percentage points up on March 2016 when producer prices were on the floor, data from AHDB Pork shows.
While the EU-spec APP increased during March from just under 150p/kg at the start to nearly 152p/kg by the end, a greater rise in the average retail price led to the producers share remaining stable. Pig prices remain 39p/kg higher than the same point in 2016, leading to the vastly improved share of the retail put being enjoyed by producers.
The majority of retail pork prices for the different cuts remained unchanged or recorded slight increases on the month in March. The exceptions were traditional pork sausage prices which fell by 2% and fillet end leg and fillet of pork values, which both decreased by 1% on the month.
Relative to March 2016, fillet end leg values recorded the greatest rise of 7% on the year. Boneless shoulder, fillet of pork and loin chop prices recorded a more modest increase of 1%, while boneless leg prices remained unchanged year on year.
On the other hand, loin steaks, diced pork and traditional pork sausages were all 5% cheaper than March 2016, while the value of minced pork fell by 4%.