It is beyond dispute that many a farmer running an improvement farm is haunted by angst nowadays. Never before have as many pigs been produced in the EU as are this year. Record quantities of near to 53 million pigs produced in Germany alone are meeting unchanged demand. There is no way for surplus supply of pigs mature for slaughter to not result in price pressure. No dark powers are at work here; the agriculture business itself created this situation. To make matters worse, feed costs spurted upwards almost explosively. What the tillers think is kind of a wondrous increase in currency – that is to say the rapidly climbing proceeds made from crop – might be ruining one livestock breeder or the other. This turns out to be a crucial test for the National Farmers’ Union. Their functionaries are beseeching peasant solidarity that simply isn’t there.

Everyone is frenetic to think about marketing strategies. This might be quite a commendable thing to do; however, it does not solve the dilemma as long as more meat is being produced than is demanded for. That’s what the feeders know as well, and thus state aid is being called for in an ever louder manner. Could you suppose it to be otherwise? Politics is expected to see to it that the market be relieved immediately by export reimbursement. But there is no answer whatsoever to the question why the public authorities should account for the fact that wrong entrepreneurial decisions have been taken.

The heavier the need, the weirder are the proposals. First threatening gestures are tentatively being constructed – which can only be explained by the assumption that one loses touch with reality. Quite similar to the latest Punch and Judy Show, acted by the Bund Deutscher Milchviehhalter (German dairy cattle farmers’ union) some time ago (milk deliveries had been planned to be paused as a result of unfavourable prices), some of the pig feeders’ spokespersons now announce to go on strike with regard to deliveries of slaughter cattle, unless the producer prices increased drastically. That again is kind of a snapshot known well enough: The main point is that any sort of thing is said in this context – and don’t worry: you still can catch up on facts later on! All this shows how little those guys think of themselves to be entrepreneurs. There is no way for an entrepreneur to go on strike; that’s something he should better leave to his employees to do. So what really is behind the word is a suspension of deliveries, intended to force downstream levels to higher prices. The whole thing could have been solved in so much simpler a way, if only production had been adapted to demand. But obviously, market forecasts are so hard to make when times are this euphoric. By the way: Those farmers would first and foremost be hit hard by the suspension of deliveries who participated in it. There is no possibility to just dispose of pigs mature for slaughter; they will be slow-selling later on and price concessions will certainly have to be made.

He who bullies much and makes threatening gestures in an inflationary way will not be taken seriously any more before long. In some parts of the agricultural business such reaction can already be observed. The slaughter industry and final distributors, at any rate, do smile no more than a weary smile any longer when hearing such announcements.


This comment was published in the no. 78 issue of the Ernährungsdienst journal on 17th October 2007.