A 4c/kg increase in pig prices last Friday has brought some relief to pig farmers, according to IFA Pigs Committee Chairman Pat O’Flaherty.
However, he said that this increase is only a mere fraction of what is needed to ensure that pig farmers return to profitability.
The majority of pig factories were quoting 138-140c/kg for pigs last Friday, which had improved by 4c/kg on previous week’s quotes.
O’Flaherty said that this upward pig prices trend must continue into the summer months to prevent more farmers from exiting production.
- Rosderra: €1.39/kg
- Dawn: €1.40/kg
- Staunton’s: €1.40/kg
- Kepak: €1.38/kg
- Karro: €1.40/kg
Deirdre O’Shea, IFA Pigs Committee Executive said the average Irish pig farmer with 600 sows is losing between €4,500-5,000 on a weekly basis, due to the low prices.
She also said that pig farmers need the prices to increase by about 20c/kg to breakeven.
Figures from Teagasc also indicate that pig farmers will still struggle to breakeven at current pig prices.
According to Teagasc, the current cost of production of most Irish pig farms is 158c/kg, which means that pig farmers are losing about 18c for every kilogram of pigmeat they produce.
Support payment
O’Shea also said that pig farmers are still waiting on the support payment to come through from the Department of Agriculture.
She said that the payment will see each farmer receive about €3,000 each under the direct aid scheme, which was announced by the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney last year.
The IFA representative said that the payment amount maybe small, it the Department should make the payment as quickly as possible, as pig farmers are under severe financial pressure.
Irish pig througput
Official figures show that the throughput of Irish pigs is currently 102% of the EU average.
According to figures from the Department of Agriculture, factory pig throughput in Irish export plants for the week ending March 19 was 51,740 head, which was 11,515 lower that the previous week.
However, despite the weekly fall in pig throughput, Irish pig slaughterings so far this year are just under 9% higher than the same period in 2015.