The spread between producer and consumer prices is getting bigger and bigger. The decline in pig and piglet prices is only moderated in the downstream stages. In the supermarket, consumers hardly pay less than they did before the crisis. In the past few months the gap between producer revenues and supermarket prices for pork has widened. While the customer in the store still pays at the same price level as before the corona crisis, pork and piglet prices have fallen for almost the entire year, reports Heribert Breker from the NRW Chamber of Agriculture. The individual marketing stages argue with the coronavirus-related additional expenses. The greater market power allows them to pass the increased costs on to the preliminary stages. In fact, it can be observed that part of the demand has shifted from the catering trade to the supermarkets and that the retail trade is experiencing brisk demand.On the other hand: Due to the coronavirus-related bottlenecks in slaughtering and the labor-intensive fine cutting to create ready-to-eat products, the consumer-ready meat offer is only available to a limited extent. Rising demand and a scarce supply are no reason for food retailers to lower consumer prices. This market constellation is even more pronounced in the USA than in Germany. At times the margins there were four times higher than the average. In the case of the coarse cutting, however, the unit prices in the 2nd marketing stage (slaughterhouses to food retailers, processors and export) have fallen almost parallel to the producer prices. The decline began with the first corona lockdown in March. Only recently have they been able to assert themselves with the start of the Christmas business and have even increased somewhat recently due to the increased demand. For the time being, producers can only dream of this. The typical pass-through effects in the market do not stop at piglet listings either. A price of € 22-25 per 25 kg piglet is the bitter truth at the end of 2020.Pig fatteners can shut down their livestock in whole or in part at short notice, piglet producers cannot. The regrowing piglets have to go somewhere, no matter what the cost. Bitter but true. Millions of piglets are said to have been disposed of in the USA. You avoid talking about it.
