Source:  John Strak, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 1/25/11

The EU’s farmers’ unions (Copa-Cogeca) called for private storage aid at the end of last week and saidthat pig producers were losing money in the closing months of 2010 and the first part of 2011.

The EU’s farm ministers met yesterday in Brussels and agreed to introduce the private storage plan in order to reduce the damage done to pig prices as a result of the dioxin scare in Germany. The farm ministers also agreed to set up a high-level working group to consider possible insurance options for the pig sector and the possibility of export promotion for EU pigmeat overseas. The first meeting of the working group is expected to be in early February.

Just under 600 farms and feed companies in Germany are not now permitted to sell livestock or products until the results of dioxin tests have been completed. Prices for pigs in Germany and the Netherlands have fallen while customers remain uncertain about the source of pigs. The market impact has also spread to the UK where the major supplier of sows to the German market has advised UK farmers to hold on to their sows until German consumers regain confidence in German pork products.

Russia weighs in
Meanwhile, Russia expanded a ban on German pork to include poultry from that country today, Bloomberg quotes the Chief Veterinary Official Nikolai Vlasov as saying.

The ban on poultry imports may end in mid-February, Vlasov reportedly said at a news conference in Moscow, and the ban on pork imports may end by April.

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