The average purchase price in April amounted to 62.3 UAH/kg including VAT (51.9 UAH/kg excluding VAT) or 1.58 USD. USD (1.32 USD/kg excluding VAT, respectively) in foreign currency equivalent. This is 1.2% or 0.75 UAH/kg including VAT higher than in March, but 22.1% or 17.7 UAH/kg including VAT lower than in the same month last year.
"Quotations on the live bait market failed to maintain a positive direction of movement throughout April. Although at the beginning of the month the positive price dynamics provided a slight positive deviation from the average for April, two weeks before Easter prices "fell off" the upward trend. Market operators believe that the main reason for the atypical price dynamics is the increased supply of live pigs on the eve of the holidays, in particular animals with a weight exceeding standard slaughter conditions. The supply of such animals significantly exceeds the needs and opportunities to sell the relevant products at fairs, markets and bazaars. This forces fatteners to offer lower prices than market prices, and the ability to purchase cheaper raw materials creates additional pressure on the price of conditioned pork," the industry association explained.
According to preliminary data, the number of industrial pigs at the beginning of April amounted to 3.69 million, which is 16% higher than at the beginning of the second quarter of 2023 and accounts for 67.7% of the total number of pigs in Ukraine. The volume of pork sold for slaughter in all categories of farms in January-March 2024 amounted to 243.8 thousand tons in live weight (+2% compared to the figure for the first quarter of 2023), of which 140.2 thousand tons (+5.5%, respectively) were sold by agricultural enterprises.
Imports of pork (UKTZED 0203) amounted to 276 tons in April, and the average customs value of an imported kilogram was 2.63 USD. USD (0.8 USD/kg lower than a month earlier). The total imports in January-April amounted to 941 tons, which is 3.8 times less than the volume imported in the first four months of 2023.
"A more active inflow of imported pork in April (the volume of supplies is 3.5 times higher than in March) was provided by supplies from Canada. Due to this, the share of overseas supplies in the import structure in January-April reached 44%. The price attractiveness of European meat did not increase in April. Therefore, the unblocking of the borders will not have a significant impact on the activity of meat importers and the situation on the pork market in the absence of fundamental changes in the domestic and European markets," comments Oleksandra Bondarska, Head of the Analytical Department of Association.
Total pork imports for the four months amounted to 941 tons, which is almost four times lower than the same period last year. The share of foreign meat in the total pork market is about 1%.
The average retail price of a kilogram of chilled pork in April amounted to 189.0 UAH/kg (+0.3% or 0.5 UAH/kg compared to the previous month). The price of chicken increased by 1.1% over the same period, and beef by 3.9%.
At the same time, this year's Easter passed without record prices for pork in retail: at the end of the pre-holiday week, the average price of a kilogram of chilled pork was 194.4 UAH/kg, which is less than half a percent higher than the same period last year. The "restraint" of pork prices facilitates its sale at the height of the picnic season and allows it to gradually "win back" the positions lost last year in the structure of the meat diet of Ukrainians.
"Since prices remain the most important factor in the choice for most consumers, reducing the price gap between pork parts and chicken allows some consumers to choose the former more often, especially during the height of the picnic season," the AMP comments.