The reduction in German and Danish pig prices this week was “completely opportunistic” with simply no justification for the fall, says Irish pig farm leader, Pat O’Flaherty.
“The combination of a larger number of pigs (than before) being presented for sale and a short business week was taken as reason enough for the Germans to move to recoup some margin,” said Mr O’Flaherty (pictured above), who is chairman of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) national pigs committee.
He also criticised German processors for being cautious on pricing, with a tight supply fourth quarter now upon them.
As for his own pig producing members, he said that Irish producers had made some ground recently on the EU average, which was now at €1.61/kg (£1.42/kg). With Ireland currently now up to 95% of the EU average price, he added that there was definitely a few cent more being achieved each week.
Factory pig throughput in Republic of Ireland export plants for the week ending Sept 24, 2016, was 61,245 head, which was 988 more than in the corresponding week in 2015. Slaughterings in ROI export plants are 5.1% ahead of the same period in 2015.