No changes to prices in the EU mature pig market this week, except for France and Spain, where prices continued to slip.

Supply and demand have remained mostly balanced across Europe this week; Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Austria and Ireland all reported sideways price movement. UK prices increased slightly.

In France and Spain, prices fell once more. Although price reductions, which started several weeks ago, appear to have eased somewhat, quotations in France and Spain still dropped by 1.7 and 1.5 cents, respectively.

Despite dramatic price drops since the height of summer, Spain still sits atop the European price structure, among the five major EU pig-keeping countries. Even so, prices in Spain have dropped by over 20 cents in the past six weeks. Over the same period, French prices have fallen by 28 cents.