GB finished pig prices fall as carcase weights break 90kg barrier

By Felicity Rusk

In the week ending 9 January, the EU-spec SPP recorded a significant drop on the previous week. The price averaged 144.74p/kg, just shy of 2p below the previous week. This is the largest week-on-week decline recorded since January 2016. As such, this puts prices 17.66p below the same week in the previous year, although the price does remain slightly above the 5-year average.

Estimated slaughter continued to pick up following the shorter kill weeks over the holiday period. Throughputs totalled 173,400 head, 38,600 head more than in the previous week. However, the slaughter pace remains around 5% lower than in the same week in the previous year.

Carcase weights continued to rise, reflecting the ongoing issues with a backlog of pigs. SPP sample weights surpassed the 90kg mark for the first time on record, averaging at 90.42kg, 560g more than in the previous week. This was almost 4kg higher than last year.

In the week ending 2 January, the EU-spec APP dropped back slightly, falling by 0.13p on the week. The price averaged at 151.13p/kg, over 12.7p below the same week in the previous year. The SPP recorded a considerably larger decline in the same week, and so the difference between the two measures widened to 4.40p.

Unfortunately, the samples for both 7kg and 30kg weaners were not robust, and so no prices were published for the week ending 9 January.

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