Weekly pig prices and slaughter data for Great Britain.
The EU-spec SPP fell by a further 0.28p to 223.74p/kg during the week ended September 16, the fourth consecutive weekly reduction.
This latest drop, following the previous week’s 0.73p drop, means the SPP has lost nearly 2p in the space of four weeks. It currently stands 23.5p ahead of a year ago.
The APP has moved ahead of the SPP, albeit fractionally, for the first time since late-May. Following the previous week’s loss of 1.6p, the APP, which includes premium pigs, gained 0.91p to stand at 224.04p/kg during the week ended September 9. With the SPP dropping back by 0.73p that week to 224.03p/kg, the APP narrowly overtook it, after nearly four months during which the usual relationship between the two measures was reversed.
With UK prices coming down more slowly than has been seen in most key European pig producing countries in recent weeks, the gap between UK and mainland Europe prices continues to grow. The EU reference price fell by another 1.8p during the week ended September 9 to stand at 196.32p/kg, driven by drops of 4.5p in France and nearly 4p in Spain, with most other markets down by smaller amounts.
The UK reference price actually increased that week to top 223p/kg, meaning the gap between the EU and UK reference prices grew to nearly 27p, compared with just 6p during the week ended July 23.
Domestic supplies remain tight, although estimated GB slaughterings for the week ended September 16 were up for the third successive week, increasing by nearly 7,000 head to 166,205, still 8,400 below 2022 levels for the week, but, notably, fractionally ahead of the 2021 figure. The estimated slaughter figures can be subject to significant revision.
Average carcase weights in the SPP sample continued to rise, moving up very slightly to 89.91kg in the week ended September 16, meaning the average has risen by more than 0.7kg over the past three weeks. This is the heaviest average since April. The average weight stands 0.6g ahead of a year ago.
London feed wheat was quoted by AHDB on Wednesday at around £190/tonne for November, slightly up on a week ago, and £191/tonne for January.
To see the weekly price graphs, click here