March 6, 2007

Slovakian pig sector hit rock bottom
 

Pig breeders in Slovakia are facing a serious crisis in the wake of a slump in pigmeat prices to as little as 32 Slovak koruna (SK) per kilogramme or 0.93 euro. This is 0.23 euro to 0.26 euro below production costs.

According to Andrej Imrich, chairman of the Slovak Pig Breeders Union said pig numbers will keep falling for as long as the low prices persist and sow numbers are certain to slump below the current 76,000 head level.

This year, warned Krakovany Cooperative Piestany district chairman Igor Guba, is going to be critical as many breeders will lose their patience and give up as the national decline in sow numbers is going to be even more considerable than in recent years when numbers fell by an annual 10 percent; from 125,000 heads to 130,000 heads in 2002.

This year's decline is attributed to the general surplus of pigmeat all over Europe, and Slovak prices have been particularly affected by cheap imports from Poland, said Imrich.

Imrich is pinning its hopes on markets in Russia and in Southeast Asia to shore up prices but he doubts the prices would unlikely return to the levels of two years ago when pork fetched around SK 41/kg or 1.19 euro per kilogramme.

The situation in the pork sector has been compared with that in the potato and vegetable sectors as Guba explains swine producers will not be able to produce even half of the domestic consumption level and it would be the consumer who pays the price.