December 3, 2012

The UK sees a steady rise in pork prices from September to early November 2012.

Tight supplies and high prices throughout Europe were the key driver of prices.

The increase in pork prices has led to robust export demand as well as increasing demand for pigs to supply the domestic market. According to BPEX's UK Pig Meat Market Update for December 2012, with the Christmas marketing period building up by mid November, prices continued to rise, despite some easing back of EU quotes.

EU pig prices began to fall back as the month progressed. However, the average price fell by nearly EUR10 (US$13.04) in the following four weeks after October 10, as pig supplies reportedly became more plentiful. Consequently, the average price for the month was EUR189.09 (US$246.54) per 100kilogrammes. Prices in all the major producing EU Member States followed a similar trend to the EU average.

The UK reference price overtook the EU average in mid October, having been below it for seven consecutive weeks from late August. As a result, the UK average for October was slightly above the EU figure.

Clean pig slaughtering in the UK during October continued to rise. This was 1% higher compared to the same month last year.