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Whereas meat markets were performing well during the first half of the year, the situation has changed in recent months, basically due to the squeeze in profits resulting from rising feed costs (cereals, oilseeds and oilcakes) and higher input prices. For the pigmeat sector, the situation is even more serious given the current oversupply on the EU market, which is responsible for driving prices further down amid high feed costs.
During the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Agriculture in October, a great number of EU delegations from various member states drew attention to the ongoing crisis in the pigmeat sector and requested the Commission to respond rapidly to address the said problem. Since then, however, the situation has grown even worse, according to the presentation made by the Lithuanian representative during the meeting. A number of extremely negative factors, such as oversaturation of the EU internal market due to higher production and related export disruptions, high feed and energy prices, further outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF), as well as the persistent negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, continue to have a combined negative effect. In Lithuania, prices of pig carcasses are at the lowest level in 10 years and there is a serious risk of the abandonment of pig production, which would be devastating for the country's economy. Faced with this situation, Lithuania, supported by the delegations of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia, asked the Commission to respond urgently to this exceptional situation and to give a clear signal of support by introducing support measures.
November 15, 2021/ Consilium/ European Union.
https://data.consilium.europa.eu/
