Weekly pig prices and slaughter data for Great Britain.
The EU-spec SPP continues its downwards trajectory, losing a further 0.44p to stand at at 198.02p/kg, during the week ended December 13.
The SPP has now lost more than 10p since early August, and is more than 8p below where it stood a year ago.
Alongside ample supplies, the biggest driver for the downward price trend has been falling EU prices, a situation made worse by Spain’s ASF outbreak and the imposition of export restrictions.
The latest Tribune EU market round-up showed the Spanish price lost a further 9 eurocents, making 34 eurocents over two weeks, due to the impact of export bans. Elsewhere, there were further falls in Belgium and France, but welcome stability elsewhere, including Germany.
Spain’s ASF outbreak has helped pushed the headline UK-EU price difference to a new record. The EU reference price (Grade S) lost more than 5p to stand at 143.2p/kg during the week ended December 7, widening the gap to the equivalent UK price to beyond 58p, highlighting the competitive pressures out there.
AHDB’s estimated GB slaughterings for the week ended December 13 were 1,500 down on the previous week, at 179,380 head, which was more than 11,000 head below the 2024 figure, suggesting there has been less of a pull-forward ahead of Christmas this year. The latest figure was nearly 18,000 head up on 2023, however.
As is often the case after Defra publishes its monthly UK slaughter figures, AHDB has revised its most recent GB estimates, in this case upwards by a few thousand.
Average carcase weights have finally seen a notable, after weeks of very elevated levels, falling by 1.17kg to stand at 91.99kg. This was still more than 3kg above year-earlier levels.
London feed wheat futures were quoted by AHDB on December 10 at £165/t for January, slightly up on last week, and £166/t for March, slightly down on last week.