Farmers received quotes from €1.78c/kg to €1.82 or €1.84 to €1.88/kg last week, leaving the Irish pig price unchanged for the larger processing plants compared to the prior week, says the Irish Farmers Association. The weekly throughput for the week ending 12 June, 2022 was 59,068.
Pig farmers are reporting feed costs of up to €1.81/kg depending on how farms have bought feed forward. Losses are still mounting to about €50 per pig. The latest figures shared by Teagasc estimate that the average 600-sow unit as of 3 June, 2022 is forecast to lose about €45,000 for the month of June.
Pig farmers protested last week outside two secondary processors. There is overwhelming frustration among pig farmers concerning the losses that they have been incurring for the past nine months, which are completely unsustainable.
Meanwhile, there was very little price change across Europe over the past week. Member states, Spain and France received more than €2.00/kg as did the UK. However, there were some price increases in the UK (Cranswick gave their suppliers +5p/kg “contribution”). In Spain, a heatwave resulted in 0.5kg lower pig sale weights. The European market prices have levelled with the weighted average pig price for grade S and E carcass at about €1.91/kg.