EU: Pig quantity to drop mid-2008
At a recent meeting of the European Commission’s outlook group for the pig sector, it was confirmed that pig supply is currently quite high.
The situation should remain unchanged in the first few months of 2008, but shortages will arise around the summertime coupled with much higher prices than this year.
Pig producers
A large reduction in pigs is expected however in Poland (4.3% in the first quarter) as many small producers will probably go out of business due to high feed prices and the correspondingly low returns. In contrast, in West Europe, pig producers are generally operating on a larger scale and are more specialised to combat low yields.
According to the Dutch Product Board for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE), the entire EU pig supply will amount to 206.5 million pigs in 2007.
A drop of 0.5% is expected in the first half of the new year. Germany, which is the main trading partner of the Netherlands, will experience a fall of around 2.5% in the third quarter of 2008.
In addition, a reduction of 2.1% to 6.6 million pigs in the first quarter of 2008 is predicted for Denmark compared to the same period in 2007.
Supply in the remaining EU-27 will drop a little, except for in Romania, where an increase in production of 25% is expected.
Related websites:
• PVE
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