The Nederlandse Vakbond Varkenshouders (NVV), Danske Svineproducenter (LaDS), Vereniging Varkenshouders (VEVA) and the ISN Interessengemeinschaft der Schweinehalter Deutschlands e. V. (ISN) discuss about the current pig market situation and about political framework

Stock decreases haven’t brought about market relief so far - Stagnation occurs in the Netherlands - Denmark overshadowed by financial crisis - Significant structural changes expected in Belgium - Germany hopes for export opportunities - EU animal and environment protection laws on the agenda

(ISN Sondervig / Herning, Denmark) From Sunday to Wednesday this week, thirteen representatives from pig keepers’ lobbies from Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany met for a three-day conference at Sondervig and Herning / Denmark.

“We have not yet overcome the crisis on the European pig market”, said Torben Poulsen, the Danske Svineproducenter Chairman’s, to welcome the participants in this year’s second four-country conference. The Danish farmers, mostly obtaining outside finance for running their farms, are the ones to suffer from the current financial crisis. They fear interest rates to be massively increased for short-term credits during the first December week. Unlike in Germany, building stables and purchasing land are financed via short-term variable credits. As a result of higher debt service, ever more pressure is exerted on the Danish piglet producers.

Hans Aarestrup, LaDS Manager, emphasised the significance of the German market with regard to his organisation. In view of a more-than-600-percent self-sufficiency rate related to pork in Denmark, Germany simply was a “must”. The directive on transports basically limited transport times down to eight hours. On top of that, numerous instructions made them “noticeably more expensive” and thus inefficient. Furthermore, Aarestrup illustrated an experiment made in boar breeding, during which a 15-percent chicory share had been fed to the boars over the last three weeks of fattening in order to cover the unwished-for boar smell in the meat.

Wyno Zwanenburg, the Dutch pig keepers’ leader, reported on the prospect that, owing to the latest Dutch ammonia guidelines which have to bindingly be converted by 2010, an unexpected structural change might occur in pig keeping. With regard to group penning of sows, a European interim solution will remain in force until 2013. Many minor and medium-size pig keepers are being overstrained from the financial point of view as a result of the immense investment needs ahead. The crisis in pig keeping had also contributed significantly to the situation over the past 18 months. In many cases, a lack of liquidity, needed for the required investments in pig keeping systems and environment technology, was discovered.

Furthermore, Zwanenburg alluded to the fact that the right to production must be acquired by purchase in the Netherlands. A pig-fattening place, for instance, cost about 180 euros, a sow place cost near to 500 euros. Because of the Dutch pig market’s pricing, growth were just possible via individual performance enhancement such as raising more piglets or improving feed conversion and thus achieving more pigs per place per year.

For that reason, the NVV board member Mark Logtenberg cherishes great hope looking forward to January 2009. That’s when the Netherlands are most likely to be granted the AK-10 status (free from Aujeszky’s disease). By then, an approximate 3 600 Dutch piglet producers instead of 200 so far will be allowed to deliver their piglets to Germany without having to obey obligations asked for from the veterinary-medicinal point of view. The Dutch market expert assumes that the German piglet market will thus be pressurised. Furthermore, he reckons that revenues in the Netherlands will go up by about 4 euros per piglet, whereas Germany would have to face a 2-euros’ lower price level. Both North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony were important export markets. Spain as a market had become ever less interesting over the past years. Compared with Germany, East-European countries such as Poland, Romania or Hungary were afflicted with higher transport costs which need to be complied with as a result of long-distance transport conditions.

The Belgian pig keepers still find themselves in a difficult situation with regard to pricing and price transparency on the pig market. This came along with a very unsatisfying situation on the feeding-stuff market, said VEVA representative Kristof Verschelde. Group penning, which will be compulsory as from 2013, would lead to a massive structural change, because 50 to 60 percent of all sows in Belgium are being held in crate stands at present. In Belgium, too, plant extension is only possible if manure is being processed by refining phosphate and nitrate to make a useful fertiliser. To acquire the right to production for a fattening place, a singular payment of about 90 to 120 euros had to be paid. Related to manure processing, the Belgian pig keeper would have to calculate about 20 euros per cubic metre.

Increasing worry was voiced by the producers in view of the soy market development. By introducing higher import tariffs and through its restrictive attitude with regard to genetic engineering, the EU Commission caused the feed-costs problem to aggravate and made the European pig keepers face competitive disadvantage, said ISN’s Franz Schulze Tenkhoff. Here, the EU Commission were to put things right as fast as possible in order to restore international competitiveness related to feeding-stuff costs at last. The disastrous discussions about “zero tolerance” would finally have to come to an end, the more so as meat of animals fed genetically modified organisms is imported into the European Union, without further ado, from the USA, Brazil or Argentina.

August Rietfort, ISN board member, appeared confident that the veterinary agreement made between the German Federal Government and Japan, China and South Africa might give the German pig market further boost. ”Russia works”, he said. The agreement with South Korea as the world’s fourth largest pork importer also was on the brink of being completed. “It is true that the worrywarts are often right, but the optimist concludes the bargain”, stated Rietfort. And it should be for just the bargains not to be put at risk, Rietfort said, referring to the “10-items plan” for wild boar abatement. Just one single wild-boar-fever case occurring might be enough to undo all kinds of export efforts at one do. This was a statement which was supported wholeheartedly also by the Danish, Dutch and Belgian participants.

ISN Manager Detlef Breuer complained about the regulating frenzy observed to be increasing in Germany. Meanwhile, Germany unfortunately were kind of “European Champion in putting spokes in the pig keepers’ wheels again and again through national solo runs”. This currently could be seen well enough in the ammonia guideline being worked on, in the instructions given in the Pig Keeping Decree as well as in the “Technical Control Board” regarding animal welfare. “Enough is enough”, Breuer said. The pig keepers had done their job and achieved a 100-percent rate of self-sufficiency. If politics did not want sustainable, regional pig farming in Germany, this should be stipulated clearly and precisely. No-one should dare clandestinely shirk responsibility by establishing flimsy guidelines and decrees. In view of the precarious situation which is now prevailing among the sow keepers, the ISN Manager requested the politicians to clearly avow themselves. All that market imponderability was something the pig keepers could certainly cope with, but as a matter of fact reliable political framework was finally needed for that purpose. Discussing new items each and every week were by no means a good thing to do.

With its 12 000 members, the ISN is representative of approximately 70 percent of all German pig producers. The LaDS, having 1 600 members, represents about two thirds of the Danish pig producers. Counting about 3 000 members, the NVV supports the interests of 60 percent of all Dutch pig producers. About 70 percent of all Belgian pig producers are being represented by VEVA and its 1 200 members. As a matter of tradition, those lobbies meet twice a year to arrange things with each other about political framework and issues concerning the pigs-mature-for-slaughter market. The next conference has been scheduled for mid-June 2009.

For NVV, Wyno Zwanenburg, Leo Verheijen, Mark Logtenberg and Erwin van der Wielen took part in the conference. Torben Poulsen, Carsten Cristiansen, Anders Nörgaard and Hans Aarestrup had come as LaDS representatives. VEVA was represented by Marianne Vandenberghe and Kristof Verschelde. The ISN representatives at the conference were August Rietfort, Franz Schulze Tenkhoff and Detlef Breuer.

The conference was held Sunday and Monday in Söndervig located at the Ringköping Fjord, West Coast of Denmark. On Tuesday, the participants went to visit the Danish Agromek Agricultural Exhibition at Herning. There, the Danes, Dutch, Belgians and Germans together held a joint press conference, where they played the question-and-answer game with more than 25 journalists. The meeting ended on Wednesday, after the H&S Westergard A/S piglet export terminal had been visited at Sunds, about 200 km north of the Danish-German border.