20/04/2005 
Some reasons for quoting the Northwest price on Fridays from now on - A comment by Bernhard Bonekamp, ISN deputy chairman
Instead of the ISW price – the publishing of which had been stopped by the cartel authorities – we, the ISN, have been publishing regularly the so-called Northwest price since October 1998, a price recommended by the Vereinigung der Erzeugergemeinschaften für Vieh und Fleisch e. V. (VEZG; united producers of livestock and meat). Until this week, the VZEG price recommendation was published on Monday and Thursday every week.
During a telephone conference headed by the Zentrale Markt- und Preisberichtsstelle der deutschen Agrarwirtschaft at Bonn (ZMP; central offices reporting about market and prices) the Northwest price is being determined.
In a press release brought out today, VEZG announced that the Northwest price will be published once a week only – Fridays – from next week on.
By the regulation which had been valid for five years so far, after all, the price for those who calculate the current weekly prices was intended to be quoted on Thursdays every week. A price adaptation, with regard to the market development, was then planned to be made by about 1 cent per kg slaughter weight on Mondays the following week. That, at least, was what was originally wished for … to stabilize the market. But the slaughter industry increasingly pushed through more severe price reductions on Mondays.
Against the background of this, the marketing companies gradually forced us - the producers - to sell about 90 percent of all our pigs at Monday prices as a weekly price. Even ISW was facing ever more problems with finding slaughter companies buying pigs at Thursday prices. For supporting meat sales, the slaughter industry also started to demand higher prices on Thursdays than on Mondays, thus even opposing the market situation.
This way, Thursday quotations – which had been planned to be valid for sales of carcass pigs for the week to come - became ever less important, if not to say invalid. As a consequence, more and more pig keepers supplied their pigs but did not hear about prices any earlier than on Monday, which was the fifth day of the week of slaughter. You can no longer call this a
The solution we found now is to publish the VEZG price recommendation on Fridays. This goes for Fridays to be the start of each week of slaughter, lasting until Thursday. Negotiating and planning sales is made much easier for the pig keepers this way, because quotations are being followed by a weekend.
We as the ISN will be publishing our market reports three times a week from next week on, giving all important information with regard to the piglet- and fattening pigs’ markets. We will be announcing the latest VEZG price recommendations on Fridays every time. Those will then be followed by the current piglet quotations on Mondays. On top of that, we will give on Mondays an assessment of the latest developments on the EU pig market and will publish the most important EU quotations.
On Wednesdays, we will make known the results of our internet pig market, together with a foresighted trend report regarding carcass pigs brought out in our market report. Pigs commercialized via the internet pig market can already be loaded as from the following day (Thursday). This way, the internet pig market’s prices may be used as kind of a replacement for the former Thursday quotations.
But apart from keeping an eye on quotations, the ISN’s entrepreneurial pig keepers indispensably need to behave according to the market rules to be able to make use of all opportunities offered by the market. For that reason, all pig keepers should only deliver pigs if they do know the correct prices. Everything else would help weakening the market.
To keep themselves up-to-date about the latest market developments, all pig keepers should take advantage of information given in our market reports, because market may be subject to many changes every week. If demand is good, we – the producers – should then either negotiate a fixed (a higher) price or derive benefit from the ISW internet pig market.
During a telephone conference headed by the Zentrale Markt- und Preisberichtsstelle der deutschen Agrarwirtschaft at Bonn (ZMP; central offices reporting about market and prices) the Northwest price is being determined.
In a press release brought out today, VEZG announced that the Northwest price will be published once a week only – Fridays – from next week on.
By the regulation which had been valid for five years so far, after all, the price for those who calculate the current weekly prices was intended to be quoted on Thursdays every week. A price adaptation, with regard to the market development, was then planned to be made by about 1 cent per kg slaughter weight on Mondays the following week. That, at least, was what was originally wished for … to stabilize the market. But the slaughter industry increasingly pushed through more severe price reductions on Mondays.
Against the background of this, the marketing companies gradually forced us - the producers - to sell about 90 percent of all our pigs at Monday prices as a weekly price. Even ISW was facing ever more problems with finding slaughter companies buying pigs at Thursday prices. For supporting meat sales, the slaughter industry also started to demand higher prices on Thursdays than on Mondays, thus even opposing the market situation.
This way, Thursday quotations – which had been planned to be valid for sales of carcass pigs for the week to come - became ever less important, if not to say invalid. As a consequence, more and more pig keepers supplied their pigs but did not hear about prices any earlier than on Monday, which was the fifth day of the week of slaughter. You can no longer call this a
market, really. – We, the pig keepers, were almost no longer in the position to make our arrangements at corresponding prices. With this, the farmers were more and more unsatisfied. Therefore, VEZG tried to find new ways together with us (ISN) and with livestock trade.
The solution we found now is to publish the VEZG price recommendation on Fridays. This goes for Fridays to be the start of each week of slaughter, lasting until Thursday. Negotiating and planning sales is made much easier for the pig keepers this way, because quotations are being followed by a weekend.
We as the ISN will be publishing our market reports three times a week from next week on, giving all important information with regard to the piglet- and fattening pigs’ markets. We will be announcing the latest VEZG price recommendations on Fridays every time. Those will then be followed by the current piglet quotations on Mondays. On top of that, we will give on Mondays an assessment of the latest developments on the EU pig market and will publish the most important EU quotations.
On Wednesdays, we will make known the results of our internet pig market, together with a foresighted trend report regarding carcass pigs brought out in our market report. Pigs commercialized via the internet pig market can already be loaded as from the following day (Thursday). This way, the internet pig market’s prices may be used as kind of a replacement for the former Thursday quotations.
But apart from keeping an eye on quotations, the ISN’s entrepreneurial pig keepers indispensably need to behave according to the market rules to be able to make use of all opportunities offered by the market. For that reason, all pig keepers should only deliver pigs if they do know the correct prices. Everything else would help weakening the market.
To keep themselves up-to-date about the latest market developments, all pig keepers should take advantage of information given in our market reports, because market may be subject to many changes every week. If demand is good, we – the producers – should then either negotiate a fixed (a higher) price or derive benefit from the ISW internet pig market.
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