During the second to last week of spring prices for slaughter pigs in Ukraine increased by 3.7%. Thus, according to the results of weekly monitoring of purchase prices for live pigs, conducted by the analytical department of the Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders, the average market price exceeded 44 UAH/kg.

The purchase price range on the live pig market has been raised this week: the majority of commodity lots were sold within 43-45 UAH/kg price range. Although occasionally there were prices both above and below these limits, almost all the pig farms managed to sell their stock at 1-3 UAH/kg higher price than a week earlier.

Thus, despite the pressure of imported pork, reported by the processors and more sluggish sales than at the beginning of the month, domestic pork has slightly strengthened in price. On the one hand, it happened “in lockstep” with the gradual rehabilitation of global pork prices (in particular, in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Germany).  On the other hand, the domestic supply of commercial pork can hardly be called excessive. In particular, the buyers of live pigs report a seasonal decrease in the average slaughter weight of animals to 105-107 kg and sometimes less. In addition, the processors indicate a regional dispersion of the price range this week: western regions bought animals at 44-45 UAH/kg, in central regions prices gravitated towards the average level, while low prices were reported in the East. This being said, there is a possibility of an increase in average market price next week, due to an increase in the minimum purchase mark. In addition, the processing industry representatives expect a “smooth” rise in prices for slaughter pigs in the lead-up to the Trinity Sunday.

Weekly dynamics of farm-gate prices for live pigs of the 1st category, 2019-2020

Source: the AUPB analytical department