Once again, Merculeda reduced the price of pork by 10 cents per kilo, warning that the situation “remains serious” due to the outbreak of African swine fever, although some bilateral negotiations with countries such as China have borne fruit. The state’s pork price reference market approved a new cut on Thursday, after the cut it had already made on Monday, which was also 10 cents. Both falls, in less than a week, are considered very exceptional and unprecedented in 30 years.
On the same Thursday, laboratories confirmed four more wild boars that had tested positive for ASF, so there are now 13 pigs in total since the beginning of the epidemic in the Collserola mountain range.
Mercolleida’s general manager, Miquel Angel Burges, said it was “essential” to sacrifice wild boars within a 20-kilometre radius of the outbreak “at full speed” and also to sacrifice 30,000 fattening pigs on farms in the area close to the outbreak. He also warned that slaughterhouses would not find space for frozen meat “within days.”
“We must quickly find a solution to the slaughter of pigs and give them a way out,” Burgess said after another extraordinary meeting of the pig fattening, sow and suckling committees to analyze the impact of the latest cases detected in Collserola.
The general director of the auction confirmed that the request to sacrifice “all” wild pigs in the Collserola area and “empty all fattening farms” is “a proposal from the entire livestock and industrial pig sector.” He added: “Everyone realizes the seriousness of the situation.”
Merculida already announced a reduction of 10 cents per kilo in the main categories of pigs last Monday, as a result of the crisis generated by African swine fever (ASF) in Catalonia.
The general director of the fish market wanted to send a message of “unity” in the sector, and called on the departments to “maximum speed” to move to ground zero, stressing that the only way “to ensure that the virus does not leave the region and move to other areas or even demarcate the borders” is to “sacrifice pigs.”
Burgess stressed that “the entire sector is losing” with this outbreak, and stated that there were “discussions” in the meetings, but he ended up deciding to lower the reference price by 10 cents because although some countries such as China or Korea “opened” their markets outside the restricted area, “the situation is still problematic.”
In this sense, he stated that “until exports to third countries become smooth, it will take a few days.” He said: “The main thing remains to slaughter pigs and make room for slaughterhouses to produce and slaughter meat at a good pace.”
Burgess stressed that one of the main problems facing the pork sector is that “the frozen meat stock capacity of exporters, not in Catalonia but throughout Spain, has reached its limits.”
According to Mercollida’s General Manager, it is “a matter of days” until the maximum occupancy of the refrigerators is reached.
With the price reduction, the fund aims to “give oxygen and margin to the slaughterhouse so that it can maintain slaughter and have an aggressive trade policy in Europe.” He added: “We have to import as much fresh produce as possible to the internal market and to Europe.”