Brussels, 10 September 2012
GEN/12/32
Salvaging the competitiveness of the European
meat processing industry and its jobs, NOW IS THE TIME
Over the last month, pig prices have risen rapidly across most of the EU, in
response to tightening supplies. Over the four weeks ending 26 August, the
EU average reference price increased by over €13 to nearly €183 per
100kg.
This is the highest level recorded since the expansion of the EU in 2004.
This rise means that the EU average price is nearly 20 per cent higher than
it was a year earlier
The European meat processing industry is caught up in the storm of higher
and higher costs and can no longer stay the course.
All the indicators of the economic situation and their causes in which our
industry is involved are well known: the skyrocketing price of the main raw
material for the meat processing industry, which is pork, (mainly caused by
the elevated cost of the feed ingredients in the pig sector) and of all the
other costs (mainly energy related), to the fact that it is impossible to pass
on all these increases to the retail sector.
The gap between production cost and retailer value is getting narrower,
resulting in insufficient margins (net profitability of 1% of turnover on
average for the European meat processing industry).
How can the European meat processing industry compete, invest, innovate,
and develop new markets under these conditions?
How can the European meat processing industry keep the permanent jobs
which have already gone down by 1.7% in 2011 in certain countries?
CLITRAVI calls on the European retail sector to play its part in ensuring that
the European meat processing industries, and its know-how, continue to
exist and to develop. The European retail sector must show flexibility in
accepting the current price increases of pigmeat.
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