EU policy measures will increase pig production cost

Costs of policy measures for pig producers will rise in many European countries in the coming years.

In the Netherlands, total net costs for policy measures could amount to EUR0.26 per kilogramme slaughter weight by 2013.

In 2007, additional costs were approximately EUR0.20 to EUR0.21 per kilogramme which shows a EUR0.06 increase.

According to researchers, the EUR0.06 net cost price rise compared with 2007 will be built up as follows: emission reduction EUR0.02, living surface area over EUR0.03 and spatial planning nearly EUR0.01, which is more than other countries.

In Germany and Denmark, the costs will rise by around EUR0.04 to EUR0.12 per kilogramme, while costs in France will rise by EUR0.02 to EUR0.08 per kilogramme.

The Netherlands therefore not only has the highest costs in 2007, but these will rise the most in the coming years.

These results were made public in the presentation of the scientific report Pig production costs; an international comparison by researchers Robert Hoste and Linda Puister at the Wageningen University and Research Centre's agricultural economic institute (LEI) in the Netherlands.

In the past, LEI had already studied the development of the production costs for pigs for the PVE and the same method and choice of countries formed the basis of this study.

US$1 = EUR0.77 (Feb 12)