Most of the 90,000 tonnes of pigmeat products accepted into the EU Commission's private storage aid (PSA) scheme in January will soon be released.

Around 2/3 of the total volume was stored for the minimum three months. Most of this will be released back into the market in the three weeks starting April 17. The remaining products, which were stored for four or five months, will be released in May and June.

There are fears, however, that the extra supplies released from storage would push prices down. As it is, EU pig prices have started to show signs of upward movement as demand picks up in the run-up to Easter.

The volume to be released in April and May is equivalent to around 3% of monthly EU production, according to the AHDB Pork. "This would be enough to move prices if demand (either from domestic or export markets) is insufficient to absorb the quantity involved".

The pork division of the UK's Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board said that should the release of supplies from the PSA scheme suppress prices, it would increase the pressure on the EU Commission to open a new PSA scheme.

Some member states want the scheme back as pig prices have remained lower than the pre-PSA levels.

The scheme, which provides EU funding to help cover the costs of storing certain pigmeat products for periods of three to five months, was devised to ease pressure on the EU market caused by the Russian ban on imports imposed in February 2014.