UK’s pig slaughterings were up over 4% in October compared to year-earlier levels and based on data from Defgra 963,000 pigs were slaughtered during the month, according to the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board.
Scotland reported the highest number in slaughterings in the mentioned period. AHDB analyst Bethan Wilkins says that this is due to the fact that a major processor was offline at this point last year.
England reported an increase of just 2%, while in Northern Ireland there was a 1% decline. Wilkins says that this decline was due to some of the displaced Scottish pigs being slaughtered there last year.
Wilkins adds that “there are mixed reports of factory breakdowns and Saturday kills both this year and last, so slaughter per working day may not be a fair representation of the market at present. It remains to be seen the extent to which throughputs pick up over the coming weeks during the key Christmas procurement period. Strong year-on-year growth will be needed to achieve the 3% annual increase anticipated for October-December in the October forecast.”
