December 8, 2016

Global pork export prices edge up in Q3

Average global pork prices continued to edge up in the third quarter of this year, based on analysis of export prices from the four major global exporters (US, EU, Canada and Brazil), AHDB Pork reported.

This continued the slow recovery which has been evident for most of the year, with the average export price in September reaching US$2.63 per kilogramme, the highest level since June 2015. Nevertheless, prices remain well below the levels recorded between 2011 and 2014.

Prices are likely to come under renewed pressure in the final three months, given the sharp fall in US prices. While this is yet to have a major impact in the EU, with export values rising in dollar terms, increased competition on export markets may well put some pressure on EU prices, the pork division of the UK Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board said.

The rise in prices in the July-September period came at a time when the amount of pork being exported fell back from the inflated level earlier in the year.

After reaching over 500,000 tonnes in May, around 440,000 tonnes were traded each month in the third quarter. Although this represents a significant decline, this would have represented an all-time high as recently as October last year. As a result, the quantity of pork traded in the first nine months reached 4.1 million tonnes, nearly 90% of the total for the whole of last year and up by almost a quarter over January-September 2015.