EU Hog Prices Slide Across Bloc Amid Weak Demand for Slaughter

European Union pig prices fell in the latest week amid weak demand from slaughterers, led by declines in Italy, Germany and Austria, said industry group Interessengemeinschaft der Schweinehalter Deutschlands e.V.

Hog prices in Germany, the European Union’s biggest producer, fell to 1.626 euros ($2.14) a kilogram (2.2 pounds) from 1.676 euros last week, Damme, Germany-based ISN wrote in a report on its website today. Italian prices dropped to 1.829 euros a kilogram from 1.975 euros. In Austria, they declined to 1.54 euros from 1.591 euros.

Demand from slaughter companies is “very modest,” ISN wrote. “Even today traders and marketers are not getting clear indications of how much will be slaughtered over the holidays from some slaughter companies.”

Pork accounts for about half of the meat consumption in the 27-nation EU. Europeans will probably eat less of the meat this year and next after prices rose and economies slowed, with per- capita consumption set to fall to 40.3 kilograms in 2013 from 41.2 kilograms in 2012, the bloc forecast in September.

In Spain, the EU’s second-largest pig producer, prices fell for a ninth week to 1.733 euros a kilogram from 1.74 euros a week ago. French prices dropped for a fourth week to 1.605 euros a kilogram from 1.611 euros.

The cost of hogs also fell in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium, the report showed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net