At the beginning of the current week, the European mature pigs market looked steady. As with the previous few weeks, quotations moved sideways or else deviated by only small amounts.  

German industry group ISN said on Tuesday that "The markets are quiet and steady. Exports to third countries are going quite smoothly at present. Market participants have hope for the stimulus needed."

Although Germany's latest food scandal, the discovery of acutely dangerous aflatoxin from a contaminated shipment of grain in feed on a large number of farms in the country, had not affected the market last week, ISN said scrutiny had increased this week. Analysts said, "Everyone looks at Germany and the latest findings of aflatoxin in feedstuffs. But over the past few days, the situation has increasingly calmed."

Spain remains the EU market leader, where the upward trend in prices continued this week. Though trade remains brisk, weights of Spanish pigs went down again by as much as 400 grams, last week, thus reaching their lowest level in 5 years. Demand is still outstripping supply in Spain.

In France, on the other hand, falling domestic consumption has resulted in lacklustre demand for pig meat, although prices rose there nonetheless. Only the Danish quotation fell last week, dropping by 2.7 cents overall, though prices had fluctuated considerably.

ISN predicted that the market would remain steady towards the end of the month.