UK’s pig prices are in free-fall amid rising carcass weight and falling pork demand in the third week of November.
Pig carcasses lost 0.9 pence to settle at 213 .48 pence per kg on 18th November for the standard pig price (SPP) category. The price for the previous week ending 11th November was 213.57 pence a kg.
All Pig Price (APP) margins fell slightly by -0.41% during the past week, between 4th November and 11th November.
Both APP and SPP margins are yet to return to the peak of 214 pence per kg of October.
APP prices have a higher clout than SPP because they come from premium deadweight carcasses. UK’s pigs that have undergone feed grading make the premium cut while SPP applies to hogs with no production details.
November’s APP/SPP price fall differences were relatively small, considering that they’ve fallen month-on-month by 8.5 pence since August.
Though there was a slim comeback of 0.01 pence in October, this has not happened again to date. It is remarkable, nonetheless, that current SPP is still 16.5 pence above that of November 2022.
Causes of the price dip includes the gradual increment in hog weight at end autumn, which added pork quantities. Pig weight in the SPP category rose by 0.64 kg in week 2 of November from the foregoing week. The average weight per hog this month is 91.05 kg, the highest in both 2023 and 2022.
Low pork demand and weak prices in the European Union (EU) have also contributed to the price drift.
This is a far cry from September 2023 when both APP and SPP had breached the 224-pence mark, adrift tight supplies.
While there were growing slaughters in September, they were not as much as they are in November. Hence, the UK’s price is decelerating faster this month than before, towards the European standard. Pork prices in the EU fell by a massive 30 pence to stand at 184.67 pence per kg by mid-November.
The feed sector is also applying pressure on price. January feed wheat bookings have fallen to £191 per tonne while the current feed for week 3 of November remains stable.
The above prices are outcomes of weekly surveys of UK’s slaughter pigs by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).