Irish pig sector is trailing Europe

Pig prices remained unchanged this week, disappointing for Irish producers who have seen recent increases in several EU member states.

Top prices here stay at 148 cent/kg, with sows at 60– 70c/kg deadweight.

IFA protested at the European Commission offices in Dublin on Monday to highlight the income crisis in the pig sector, and call for export refunds to be introduced .

However, EU pork exports reached a new record at 139,000 tonnes for June, up 21% on June 2014 on the back of strong growth of shipments to China.

Despite this, prices are low across most member states, and Dutch pig farmers are now threatening to take protest action, which has already happened in France and Belgium

The ÖVP farmers’ organisation says an average Austrian pig producer with 100 sows (Austrian pig farms are still generally small) will lose €30,000 in 2015.

Low European demand for grilling meat is blamed for the bad market.