Dear readers,
The last week was also mostly calm, due to the 1 of May , we still found some good news:
- The gene edit used in PIC’s PRRS-resistant pig has been determined safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA granted approval to PIC on April 30. Matt Culbertson, PIC’s chief operating officer: “We have spent years conducting extensive research, validating our findings and working with the FDA to gain approval…Today marks a major milestone for consumers, farmers and the entire pork industry who have desperately hoped for a solution to PRRS.”
- The USDA released $55.8 million in 2024 Local Meat Capacity Grant funding that had been frozen early this year following the inauguration of President Donald Trump
- Chomps, a U.S. meat snack brand, secured a $100 million revolving line of credit with Wells Fargo to support its continued expansion. According to available data, Chomps, founded in 2012, has grown into a $24 billion protein snack market, reporting 292% year-over-year sales growth. This is what remains, after the “alternative protein” hype is over.
- The conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) has nominated former butcher Alois Rainer to become Germany’s next Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Homeland. This would be a major change, after a vegan Muslim minister.
Events calendar:
- Food + Beverage Indonesia is a specialized trade fair that has established itself as a key platform for the food and beverage industry in Southeast Asia. The fair will take place on 4 days from Wednesday, 07. May to Saturday, 10. May 2025 at the Jakarta International Expo.
Unstoppable
As good as it is for the farmers, the gene edited PRRS resistant pig will have to be also validated by the market. Confidence in science has dramatically decreased in the last years, as social media became the major factor in the decisions of the population. Just remember, what happened during the Covid crisis.
While this scientific breakthrough may help the profitability of the pig farmers, pork market faces strong challenges from the Trump tariff war. China was responsible for about $1.1 billion in sales of U.S. pork in 2024. One of the largest operators of the industry, Smithfield, which until its recent spinoff was a division of WH Group of China, is looking at other channels for its pork business.
CEO Shane Smith: “With China no longer essentially being available, we have really had to pivot our business.” Donovan Owens, president of Smithfield’s Fresh Pork division, characterized China as “not a viable sales market for us at the moment.”
The trade war determined some unexpected alliances on the international markets, including the protein trade. For the European pork market, it has already determined a new China-Spain deal and important market players from the Netherlands and Denmark also reported increasing orders from China, but also from other Asian countries.
Last week we have also seen an unprecedented event, almost total blackout of the electricity in Spain, Portugal for 24 hours, with France also partially affected. For the pig industry, the loss is estimated at 190 million €! There were losses in meat products in slaughterhouses, cutting rooms, and processing industries. Damage has also been reported to machinery, treatment plants, pumping stations, electronic devices and systems.
The unexpected price rise in German reference price in the passed week has been partially followed in the rest of Europe and the market seemed to remain calm. Everything was just fine until Thursday, 2 of May. Normally, this week is also a shorter one in terms of working days and, after 3 short weeks, there should be more pigs on the market. The boost of 22 cents /kg carcass announced by Danish Crown has been copied by Tican(part of Tönnies), this time without the usual 5 cents extra. The amount of increase is unprecedented in Danmark and rarely happened in other European markets. Undoubtfully, it was needed to keep the Danish pigs and piglets in the national market. The German “small stock exchange” followed it with a 10 cents increase on Friday, to be expected on the official stock exchange Wednesday. Will this increase go through the main European pig markets? Will it be unstoppable?
