March 23, 2006

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Your free copy of the Pig International Electronic Newsletter is sponsored by TIAMUTIN® – one of the most potent antibiotics available for the major enteric and respiratory diseases of pigs. Manufactured by Novartis Animal Health, TIAMUTIN® has been developed exclusively for use in animals and is produced in a flexible range of formulations. Visit our website at www.tiamutin.com for more information.

 

Your fast-track guide to reports in this issue:

  • Disease fears shape European market
  • EU data show fragmentation
  • Doubts over Russian projects
  • PMWS questions in New Zealand
  • Malaysia confronts a cultural issue
  • Poland examines export potential
  • Embryos cloned in Denmark
  • Famous brand changes hands
  • Investors invade Romania's backyard
  • Integrators and processors
  • Shows and seminars
  • Companies and people
  • Data in brief
  • Latest job opportunities
  • Send us your news

Disease fears shape European market
Less chicken will be eaten in the countries of the European Union in 2006 as consumers react to the spread of the bird disease avian influenza. Expect pork to be the main beneficiary of a market movement against poultrymeat. This effect could see the uptake of pigmeat in the EU-25 area rising from about 19.8 million metric tons in 2005 to exceed 20 million tons in 2006.

So say predictions contained in a US department of agriculture Gain (global agriculture information network) report that draws together the views of its foreign service officers in the European Union’s capital cities. Revised estimates are given for the numbers shaping the pig and pork scene of the EU, as set out in the accompanying Table.

Significantly, it suggests that sow numbers have hardly changed from the level seen at the start of 2005. It also indicates an expansion of pork exports to non-EU countries. Figures for poultrymeat had pointed to a downturn in consumption from 7.37 million tons in 2005 to 7.27 million tons in 2006.

EU data show fragmentation
Newly released data from European Union statistical bureau Eurostat illustrate how many of the community’s sows are still in relatively small herds, the April issue of Pig International magazine will report. A total of more than 800 000 herds with sows was shown by the December 2003 surveys conducted in all 25 current member states. But well over 99% of them contained fewer than 1000 sows each. They included almost 570 000 herds in the 10 new members of the EU bloc.

Doubts over Russian projects
Optimism may be running ahead of realism with regard to some of the many pig production and processing projects now being developed and announced for Russia, sources inside the Russian pork sector are suggesting. Their remarks have coincided with the release of details by the governmental agriculture ministry in Moscow showing a fresh flood of applications to start in pigs and also appeared within days of a western European commentary that high Russian pig profits were drawing in big players who would soon dominate the business.

The Moscow ministry reported receiving 76 applications for new pig projects across Russia under a scheme offering 8-year loans with preferential interest rates. Another 25 projects for pig production were said to be in the pipeline to receive 5-year loans at subsidised rates of interest. But Gennady Frolov, who is public relations director of integrated Russian meat Cherkizovo, is quoted as declaring that many of the new pig units being announced for Russia may never be realised. No more than one-third of them are likely to be built.

Cherkizovo itself began the first part of a 3-phase pork project in February this year. When completed this will involve almost 20 000 sows on sites in Russia’s Lipetski region, where local reports say qualifying pork producers will receive a regional administration subsidy amounting to 35 US cents for each kilogram produced over the next 3 years.

PMWS questions in New Zealand
Weaner losses in New Zealand are being blamed on the return of circovirus wasting disease PMWS, although apparently in a slightly different guise to the form that first struck the country in 2003. Incidents at that time were exceptionally severe, but this time reports have spoken of a milder form in which affected pigs respond to treatment.

The possibility of spread by wild birds is also under investigation. Three years ago, New Zealand lost its claim to be one of the few countries free of PMWS when the disease struck units in the Auckland area. Circovirus infections were said subsequently by the NZ agriculture ministry to be widespread on North Island and restrictions were imposed on moving pigs or semen to South Island. The latest outbreak has affected sow herds around Christchurch on South Island, however, leading to speculation that the infection may have been carried by birds. This was reinforced by the observation that the worst episodes have been on large outdoor units.

New Zealand today has about 350 pig units, the largest of them being in the Canterbury region close to Christchurch. The 2005 annual report of the NZ Pork Industry Board recorded annual slaughterings of 764 746 pigs, giving an output of 50 845 tons of pork. Another 31 862 tons were imported as the pigmeat uptake rose to an average of 20.1kg per person/year. The board has set a target of increasing the consumption of New Zealand-produced pork from its current level of 12.4kg per person/year to 14kg by 2007.

Malaysia confronts a cultural issue
Pork production in Malaysia goes against the culture of the 65-70% of the population who are Muslim. Only about 25% of the population are potentially pigmeat consumers as Christians or may operate pig units as ethnic-Chinese Buddhists. The strains caused by these differences have re-emerged this year in the Malaysian state of Malacca. Pig producers have been told by the local administration that they must shut down their operations.

In fact, this was only the latest move in a long-running saga. Earlier the state government had served eviction notices on 20 units in the district of Alor Gajah, claiming that they were either unlicensed, had built on agricultural land or had erected buildings without planning permission. But it over-ruled similar orders against other producers requiring them to close within 30 days because of poor manure disposal and inadequate hygiene. Noting that many of the units had existed for 50 years or more, it said it had no intention of destroying pig production in the area and would instead provide assistance towards improved environmental management.

Tensions in the north-eastern state of Kelantan were raised meanwhile by the deaths of children suspected of having the virus of Japan encephalitis, which can be transmitted from pigs to people by the bite of a culex mosquito. In 1999, over 100 people in Malaysia were killed by a Nipah virus zoonosis involving pigs.

Poland examines export potential
News reports from Warsaw have named Miesny Duda, Animex and Sokolow among about 40 Polish meat companies bidding to export pork to Japan, as the latest evidence that Poland will rapidly build its pigmeat exporting status. Poland’s central statistics office GUS has pointed to substantial year-on-year increases in the national pig inventory as signifying a major increase of pork production that will generate more surpluses for export. According to a European market bulletin from MLC, Poland could see its pigmeat exports rise by 50% in 2006 against the background of a 9% annual increase in output.

Quoting GUS and Eurostat, markets agency ZMP in Germany has posted an inventory increase for Poland from under 17.5 million pigs in 2004 to over 19.5 million in 2006. Sow numbers were shown rising over the same period from 1.65 million to almost 1.9 million. A production of 1.925 million tons of pigmeat in 2004 could become 2.14 million tons this year, about 140 000 tons of which might be available for export.

Russia used to be Poland’s biggest customer for pork, but in November last year it imposed a ban on importing Polish meat products. This has prompted pork producers inside Poland to aggressively seek out new market opportunities, said a commentary from US embassy analysts in Warsaw. Japan is a big target, potentially buying up to 50 000 tons of Polish pork in 2006 and particularly taking loins, bellies and shoulders in non-processed form. Korea bought about 6500 tons from Poland in 2005 and seems set to return for more. Inside Europe, exports last year went to other European Union members and to Romania and Ukraine. The analysts said Poland had also examined possibilities for sending pork to China, although so far without success.

A further demand factor for Poland’s producers has been a surge in the domestic uptake of pigmeat. Sources estimate the average amount in 2005 to have worked out at about 39kg per person/year. The forecast for 2006 is an increase to 38-39kg/person, driven by relatively low retail prices and an opposition to eating chicken because of the H5N1 avian influenza found locally in wild birds.

Embryos cloned in Denmark
Last year Denmark changed its national legislation to allow cloning of pig embryos for the purposes of research into improving human health. Now the Copenhagen Post newspaper reports that the country’s first cloned pigs are due to be born in June. This results from a successful cloning and embryo transfer procedure at the Danish Institute of Animal Sciences.

 

Famous brand changes hands
National Pork Board in USA is purchasing the trade-mark ‘Pork. The Other White Meat’ from the National Pork Producers Council, paying US$60 million over 20 years. Payments will begin in July after the transfer receives US department of agriculture approval. The board has leased the mark from NPPC since the 2 organisations separated.

Investors invade Romania’s backyard
Ahead of its membership of the European Union, Romania is attracting significant levels of inward investment for the pork sector from companies in Europe and North America. Commercial-scale sites remain relatively rare inside the country, however. Governmental councilor for agriculture Achim Irimescu has been quoted by cee-foodindustry.com as estimating that only about one million out of the 7 million pigs in Romania last year were held by commercial concerns.

Integrators and processors
One of the latest players from western Europe to start activities in Romania is German meat producer Reinert, which will open its own Romanian factory in the middle of the country later this year and aims to double the plant’s capacity within another 12 months as a base for sending shipments to neighbouring countries such as Hungary and Bulgaria.

Plans to establish a production complex of 14 000 sows in Russia are being called significant because of their location. Most big investments in Russian pig production over the past 5 years have been on the European side of the country, around the Black Sea and towards the border with the Ukraine. But Russian agrifood corporation S-Agro wants to build its US$140 million complex on the other side of the Ural Mountains, in Siberia. A territory of 15 000 hectares some 40 kilometres from the city of Tyumen will be used to produce about 27 000 tons of pork per year.

Considerable investments are being made in Ukrainian meat processing. A new factory opened by deputy prime minister Yuriy Melnyk about 120 km from Kiev is called the country’s largest and most advanced in producing poultry, pork and red meat products. It has been built by Myronivsky Hliboproduct, Ukraine’s biggest poultry producer, with equipment by Netherlands-based meat systems manufacturer CFS. Products for sale under the Legko brand will come from 5 production lines with a starting capacity of 100 tons per day and the possibility for increasing to 240 tons daily.

Canadian pigmeat producer/processor Maple Leaf Foods reckons to have effective ownership of 20% of the pigs processed by its factories. It has reported a 4% increase in 2005 sales for its meat products group, to C$4.3 billion. Earnings from operations before restructuring costs rose by 3% to C$263 million. But the corporation revealed a recent downturn in the performance of its pork business in Japan. Margins in the Japanese market were impacted by a 16% depreciation of the Yen against the Canadian dollar compared to the first half of 2005, which resulted in an immediate decline in the sales value and profitability of pork exports.

Latest annual accounts from Finnish meat processor HK Ruokatalo show improved figures from international trading while sales within Finland slumped. The overall effect was a rise to €883.3 million for the year. Activities in the meat sector outside Finland accounted for 39.5% of total revenue, up from 23.2% in 2004, and for 42.3% of the €24.1 million consolidated operating profit. Benefits to the results came from its Rakvere Lihakombinaat business on the Baltic market and from group-owned pork company Sokolów in Poland. However, the performance of Tallegg in Estonia was called below target.

Shows and seminars
Antibiotic use in pig production will be the focus of the 2006 University of Illinois Pork Industry Conference to be held 27th-28th April at the Holiday Inn hotel of Urbana, Illinois, USA, reports organiser Gilbert Hollis (hollisg@uiuc.ed). Presenters include scientists from Sweden, Canada and Denmark as well as Illinois faculty members and researchers.

The future of animal nutrition is among items on the agenda for discussion at the 2nd biennial World Nutrition Forum, announced by Biomin for Vienna, Austria, on 7th-8th September 2006.

A new host country has been named for the World Mycotoxin Forum when it returns this year. The 3 previous conferences in the series were held in the Netherlands, but the fourth takes place in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, on dates of 6th-7th November.

Companies and people
Pigture Group, holding company of genetics supplier Topigs in the Netherlands, is appointing Cor van Hertrooij as chief financial officer with effect from May. He joins Jan van Vugt and Jan Merks on the management team at Pigture Group headquarters. The group’s pig artificial insemination services company in Spain and Portugal, AIM Iberica (formerly Stamboek Iberica), has appointed Julian Vicente as manager. AIM Iberica sold over 1.1 million doses of semen in 2005. Associated companies Topigs Iberica and Topigs Portugal reportedly share 20% of the pig genetics market on the Iberian Peninsula. Also noted by the Dutch headquarters of the group is that Topigs has become the first European pig breeding organisation to be certified under the European Union’s new Code-Efabar code of practice for enterprises engaged in farm-animal breeding and reproduction.

Panagro health & nutrition bvba has been formed in Belgium to supply feed supplements and veterinary/nutritional know-how to producers and veterinarians internationally. Founding principals are Dr Kristof Van Hoye and Ing. Gino Totté.

Electronic weighing systems manufacturer Digi-Star in the USA has been bought from JSI Industries (formerly J-Star Industries) by members of its management team and investment groups Capital for Business and Northstar Capital. The company will maintain its operations in Wisconsin, USA, and in the Netherlands.

UK-based breeder UPB has also announced setting up a nucleus/multiplication operation in Ukraine and a contract to supply seedstock to a new pork complex in the Voronezh region of Russia. Initially it will supply the complex with 800 GGP and GP animals representing Large White and Landrace dam lines and the Alba terminal sire line. The deal also includes a 3-year technical agreement to develop and maintain the breeding programme.

Beny Lægsgaard has become director of Danish pig housing company Gråkjær A/S, freeing administrative director John Gråkjær to oversee group operations that now extend to 4 offices in Denmark, Gråkjær Skandinavien in Norway and Sweden, Gråkjær GmbH in Germany and Gråkjær International in Ukraine and Russia.

Dr Paul Blanchard is the new owner of UK-based feed consultancy Roses Nutrition Ltd, advising overseas projects as well as British farmers.

Soybean protein product specialist Hamlet Protein A/S in Denmark has changed its ownership, management co-shareholders Ole Kaae Hansen (managing director) and Stephen Paul Rose (sales director) acquiring the 50% of shares formerly held by Oelmühle Hamburg AG, a German affiliate of ADM.

Kesko Agro, subsidiary company of the leading trading group in Finland, has become the exclusive distributor for Big Dutchman pig housing and feeding equipment on the Finnish market.

Water treatment systems supplier Dosatron International in the USA reports that it will commemorate its 20-years anniversary in May.

Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC) in the UK has reported the death at the age of 55 of its former technical director, Mike Attenborough, after a short illness.

Feed software developer/marketer Adifo in Belgium has appointed Piet Van Huffelen as chairman of its new board of directors, with Tony Neven as chief executive.

Waters Corporation announced its purchase of the food safety technology business and associated net assets of feed test kits company Vicam in the USA.

Kemin Agrifoods Europe has named Matthew Stott as sales manager of its British business.

Data in brief
Hungary’s 3.85 million pigs on farms in December 2005 could grow to 4.1 million in 2006, according to a Hungarian meat council forecast.

Australia’s slaughterings of 5.332 million pigs for meat in 2005 compared with 5.432 million in 2004. Pork production of pork dropped 1.7% to 387 542 tons.

Russia could see its pigmeat production rise 6.5% to 1.77 million tons in 2006, markets agency ZMP predicted.

Denmark’s production of pig feeds from industrial mills last year was down 3.1% from the 2004 level at under 3.5 million tons, on data from Danmarks Statistik.

Canada in January 2006 had an on-farm inventory of 14.496 million pigs compared with 14.675 million a year earlier. Latest total covered 4.2 million pigs in Quebec, 3.56 million in Ontario, 2.9 million in Manitoba, 2.02 million in Alberta and 1.32 million in Saskatchewan (Table).

Hog industry growth slows
Farmers had 14.5 million hogs on their farms as of January 1, 2006, 1.2% lower than the same date in 2005 and 2.8% down from the previous quarter. Although international exports of Canadian hogs, principally to the United States, rose a substantial 16.2% from the first quarter to the fourth quarter, exports were down 3.4% in 2005 compared with a year earlier. At the same time, births were down modestly as was domestic slaughter. Hog prices were generally lower in 2005 than in 2004. However, producers benefited from low feed costs. These costs are expected to escalate following the December 15, 2005 countervail duty on US corn entering Canada. It should also be noted that the moratorium on hog expansion in Quebec was lifted in December 2005 (Table).

Inventory of all hogs and pigs for December 2005 in the U.S. and Canada was 75.7 million head. This was up 1 percent from December 2003, and up slightly from 2004. The breeding inventory, at 7.66 million head, was up slightly from a year ago, and up 1 percent from last quarter. Market hog inventory, at 68.0 million head, was up slightly from last year, and down 1 percent from last quarter. The pig crop, at 34.2 million head, was up 1 percent from 2003, but down 1 percent from 2004. Sows farrowed during this period totalled 3.75 million head, down 1 percent from last year (Tables).

U.S. inventory of all hogs and pigs on December 1, 2005 was 61.2 million head. This was up slightly from December 1, 2004, but down 1 percent from September 1, 2005. Breeding inventory, at 6.01million head, was up 1 percent from last year and last quarter. Market hog inventory, at 55.2 million head, was up slightly from last year but down 1 percent from last quarter. Sows farrowed during this period totalled 2.89 million head, unchanged from last year.

Inventory of all hogs and pigs on January 1, 2005 in Canada was 14.5 million head, down 1 percent from last year and down 3 percent from last quarter. The breeding inventory, at 1.64 million head, was down slightly from a year ago and up slightly from last quarter. Market hog inventory, at 12.9 million head, was down 1 percent from last year and down 3 percent from last quarter. The pig crop, at 8.11 million head, was down 6 percent from 2004, and down 2 percent from 2003. Sows farrowed during this period totalled 862,000 head, down 4 percent from last year.

 

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Your free copy of the Pig International Electronic Newsletter is sponsored by TIAMUTIN® – one of the most potent antibiotics available for the major enteric and respiratory diseases of pigs. Manufactured by Novartis Animal Health, TIAMUTIN® has been developed exclusively for use in animals and is produced in a flexible range of formulations. Visit our website at www.tiamutin.com for more information.