Improved Prospects for Global Meat Sector
Improved economic growth and continued growth in meat consumption offer good prospects for the global meat and livestock sector.

Richard Brown from the market analysts GIRA, speaking at the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board Outlook conference last week said that meat consumption is expected to grow by 1.5 per cent this year in volume, while producer prices are expected to remain stable or even decrease.

There is expected to be a modest growth in meat demand and feed costs for the first half of this year will be down.

The recent volatility experience by the meat and livestock sector is expected to reduce with little volatility this year.

There will be further robust growth in global meat trade by about two per cent.

While the global meat sector can look forward to improved market conditions, pig producers can also hope for better times with reduced input costs and better market prices.

Stephen Howarth from the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board Market Analysis team told the Outlook conference: “With the total EU pig herd declining, we were expecting tight supplies in 2013.”

However, the degree of the drop in production did not occur. While the pig herd numbers fell production increased and carcase weights went up and the export markets performed well.

While supplies were tight, they were not as tight as expected and pig price rises continued throughout 2013 reaching unprecedented levels.

At the same time, feed prices started to fall so that by the summer of last year, pig producers were back in the black.

“Producers are in a much better position than they were 12 months ago,” Mr Howarth said.