French pig market resumes
The Marché du Porc Breton, the leading French pig market in Plérin, Brittany, has resumed its sessions after almost 7 weeks of interruption. At the first session after the long break, the screens showed a reference price of €1.0763 /kilo compared to €1.301 /kilo at October 5th, the last session before the stop.
The MPB had to stop its activities after most of the larger buyers refused to participate at the bi-weekly auctions. First, the 2 largest French meat companies Bigard and Cooperl stayed away. They considered the price of €1.40 /kilo the pig holders unions agreed this summer with minister Stéphane le Foll of agriculture as too high. They were later followed by the representatives of most other purchasers, including some of the larger French supermarket chains. After lengthy behind the scenes negotiations, the board succeeded in getting all parties to sign a new protocol which gives the buyers at the market more influence and flexibility.
Also read: French meat company sets its own pig price
The French meat company Bigard, one of the largest in the country, no longer follows the national reference price for pigs from the Marché du Porc Breton but sets its own pig price.
The unions of pig holders decided to give the market an easy re-start by limiting the number of animals on offer. As a result, there were some 25,000 animals on offer, about half the number that were on average sold at the sessions earlier this year.
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