EU and Spanish Pork Markets

Mercedes Vega

General Director for Spain, Italy & Portugal, Genesus Inc.

mvega@genesus.com

After more than a month in the live price was in the psychological border of the euro, the prices have been rising from the month of February little by little to put at 1.156 € / kg live weight at this time. We are with a lower price than a year ago (1,250 € / kg live weight), but nevertheless with weights higher than those, 113.61 kg of live weight compared to 108.68 kg in 2017.

It is observed in the market that trends are changing. On the one hand, the enlargements of the slaughterhouses are already working, they need more hogs to be slaughtered and, in addition, they are looking for bigger hogs.

The average slaughter weight of last year, 2017, was 109.6 kg, compared to 107.6 kg in 2015. But if we look at the average of what we have in 2018, it is 115.2 kg compared to the same period of the previous year. 2017 of 111.2 kg.

The change is appreciated little by little. The market trend is the demand for heavier hogs and better meat quality. The increase in the production of animals with Danish Duroc that gives the weight but does not cover the pork meat quality, is causing the market to look for other alternatives. It is demanding quality meat at a good production cost in which both production and industry can earn a living and in response to the meat quality that the consumer is increasingly asking for more and more. And this is corroborated by the growing need of the meat industry to use a registered purebred

Duroc, like the Canadian one, in order to meet its efficiency and efficacy objectives with the quality demanded by the market.

As for the data from last year, the number of market hogs has been beaten almost around 50 million hogs. These from 2013 to 2017 have increased by 20%.

The data of the Spanish exports of 2017 in terms of meat and pork products were 2,124,367 tons. This has represented 5,022.6 million euros. In relation to 2016, it was an increase of 5.3% in volume and 11.8% in value, achieving a new record in both volume of kg and value in euros.

As can be seen in the graph, the evolution of Spanish exports from 2013 to 2017, growth was 59.2% in volume and 50.8% in value.

The distribution of these exports by country is France 15.38%, China 15.24%, Italy 8.33%, Portugal 6.25%, Japan 5.51%, UK 3.35%, Germany 3.23%, and Hong Kong 2.62%; and its evolution can be seen in the following graph:

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This post was written by Genesus