Danish Crown introduces quotas for deliveries of pigs
Since the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in Germany, the number of pigs registered for slaughter has been rising and abnormally high. This has put considerable pressure on Danish Crown's slaughterhouses, and therefore Danish Crown has decided to introduce quotas that divide the members' deliveries into A- and B-pigs, so that B-pigs with effect from Monday 30 November are settled with a deduction of 142 kroner pr. pig. The deduction is variable and will in principle be determined once a month. "The intention with the quotas is that the stable suppliers can continue to have their pigs slaughtered according to plan. At the same time, we want to avoid producing pigs in Denmark that do not have the capacity of the slaughterhouses," says Erik Bredholt, chairman of Danish Crown.
In order to be able to slaughter the many extra pigs, Danish Crown is currently expanding the capacity of the slaughterhouses and expects to have hired over 400 new employees before the new year. Most recently, it has been decided to establish an evening team at the slaughterhouse in Ringsted, so that up to 14,000 extra pigs can be slaughtered per week on Zealand.
For that there is a need to make a differentiated settlement is primarily due to the limit that lies in Danish Crown's opportunities to export to countries outside the EU.
Export capacity out of the EU is mainly governed by two factors. These are the packing capacity of the slaughterhouses and the freezing and storage capacity of the cold stores. The capacity has for a long period been fully utilized, so therefore a very large part of the extra pigs that Danish Crown now receives for slaughter must be sold fresh within the EU.
In the EU, the prices of most products are significantly lower than when exporting to markets outside the EU. This is because the European market must already absorb the 600,000 tonnes of meat that Germany has been barred from exporting from the EU following the outbreak of African swine fever.
"There should be no doubt that this is an extreme situation we are in. In the EU, prices are low after the outbreak of ASF in Germany because the market is oversupplied with pork. In China and large parts of Asia, people are also affected by ASF, but this means that prices are attractive because the markets in Asia are undersupplied, so there is a big difference in what the extra pigs we get for slaughter, can be sold for," says Erik Bredholt.
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