THE number of pigs slaughtered in Australia has hit the five million mark for the first time in almost a decade.
But despite the increase in numbers, there could still be a shortfall leading up to the busy Christmas period.
Speaking at the Australian Pork Limited/Pork CRC Roadshow held at Tanunda on Friday, APL policy general manager Deb Kerr said slaughter numbers had increased in the past few years, and hitting 5m pigs in the past financial year was a significant achievement.
“SA slaughtered 1.2m pigs last year, which is slightly up from the previous year, and is about 25 per cent of the national total,” she said.
“The average slaughter weight in SA was 75.1 kilograms, which still lags behind Qld and Vic producers.”
Imports are showing no signs of easing – up 2.4pc on the previous financial year – at 166 million tonnes.
“In the European Union there’s been a significant decline in profitability for pig producers, so there’s a lot more pork about,” she said.
But Ms Kerr said Australian exports of pig meat had also picked up in the past few months, at 33.6mt.
“The value of pork exports out of SA is $18.3m – an increase of 55.9pc on the previous year,” she said.
Ms Kerr said producers were enjoying good prices of about $3.80/kg.
“The pig price has trended up in the past few years,” she said. “There has been a bit of a decline in the past couple of months, but it’s still significantly better than previous years.
“The demand for fresh Australian pork is good, and the forecast is for strong demand to continue.”
Ms Kerr said pork was likely to remain price competitive against other meat for some time.
“If you talk to Meat & Livestock Australia, they believe the strong demand and prices for beef and lamb are going to continue to at least 2020,” she said.
Ms Kerr said low grain prices also added up to good profitability for pork producers, and there was little likelihood of them rising any time soon.
“At a meeting I had with grain representatives in Canberra recently, one said even if the Australian harvest was wiped out, it wouldn’t make much different to feed prices because there’s such a glut in the world market,” she said.
Ms Kerr said while some producers had indicated they would exit the industry before April next year, when the sow-stall ban would come into effect, those pigs exiting the system would be offset by bigger producers making further investment in infrastructure.
Long-time SA pig buyer John McKay said despite the increase in pigs being slaughtered, there was still likely to be a shortage of numbers leading up to Christmas.
“If I had to find an extra 200 pigs to buy, I’d struggle, because pretty well every pig produced in SA is accounted for,” he said.
“We’ve got Christmas coming up, and a shortage of pigs at the moment, so in the time of the greatest demand, there’s just not the numbers about.”