Polish pig prices keep falling: average purchase price down to 5.70 zloty per kilogram
Data compiled by the Polish farming portal Farmer show that pig purchase prices slipped further last week. Pressure on pork producers in Poland and Germany remains very high.
Pig purchase prices in Poland did not recover last week, and some meat processors even cut their rates slightly, the Polish agricultural portal Farmer reported on 6 November. The trend matters for pork producers, as low prices in Poland and elsewhere in the European Union (EU) put heavy pressure on farm incomes.
In Poland, E-class pigs (the top meat-quality grade) are currently bought for 5.40–6.00 zloty per kilogram. The average purchase price is about 5.70 zloty per kilogram, roughly 10 grosz less than a week earlier. For pigs settled by live weight, the decline was smaller: the average is just over 4.25 zloty per kilogram net, with prices ranging from 3.80 to 5.00 zloty.
The situation in Germany
Last week the quotation of the German producers' association VEZG was cut by 8 euro cents. This week there were no major changes in Germany, but Bartosz Czarniak, a spokesman for the Polish pork producers' association PZHiPTCh Polsus, said on social media that farmers on both sides of the border fear further cuts. According to him, there is talk behind the scenes of a possible drop to 1.20 euros per kilogram for E-class pigs. That was the price in February 2022, just before Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
Prices in other countries
According to quotations from the Polish pork producers' body KZP-PTCh Polpig, the picture across the EU is mixed. Germany and Denmark kept their rates unchanged last week, while France cut its rates by 6 euro cents and Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands by 5 euro cents. In the United States, prices fell from 1.49 to 0.94 US dollars within two weeks, a drop of more than a third.
