AHDB: The EU pig prices continue to soften
Defra’s latest figures put UK clean pig slaughter at 872,000 head, steady on the month but down 3% versus January 2025. January 2026 had one fewer working day than January 2025.
More recently, AHDB estimated clean pig slaughter fell back from the uplift noted in the week ending 7 February to 162,700 head in the latest reporting week.
Market reports describe a surplus of pigs in the market and on farm currently, with extra kill days having been implemented in some cases to work through supplies.
Pressure on the market is compounded by carcase weights, which averaged 95.28kg in the week ending 14 February, down slightly from the previous week but still up over 3kg on the year, and above 2022 levels.
EU pig prices continued to ease through January, but since the week ending 25 January, the declines have appeared to stall.
The EU reference price averaged 126.66p/kg equivalent in the week ending 8 February, up 0.11p from the week previous and down just 0.44p/kg from two weeks ago.
Despite this marginal uplift, the price remains significantly lower than last year, by 28.58p.
The gap between average EU and UK reference prices peaked at 69.56p for the week ending 18 January. By the week ending 8 February, this had narrowed to 67.73p.
Despite the widening price differential UK imports of pig meat remained subdued in December, with volume losses from most suppliers. Total volumes (including offal) totalled 58,500 tonnes, down 8,700 tonnes (-13%) from December and down 5,800 tonnes (-9%) on the year.
Meanwhile, new ASF cases continue to be detected in Spain outside of the original containment zone. At time of writing (18 Feb), there have been 31 reported outbreaks spanning 162 positive cases in wild boars in 7 municipalities.
Spanish authorities have responded with further restrictions on the movement of people and livestock, increasing the size of the high-risk zone, pushing prevention efforts and farm surveillance. Importantly, the virus is still (at time of writing) only in wild boar. A further 1,112 captured / found boar have tested negative for the virus in the region.
Reports suggest that the export situation regarding open / closed markets remains unchanged. This situation and market impact remains critical to monitor.
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