World grain price increases push up prices of pork in Bulgaria, meat processors say
Prices of pork in Bulgaria have increased about 30 per cent since the end of July 2012, forced up by global increases in the prices of grain used as feed, according to Kiril Vutev, head of Bulgaria’s Association of Meat Processors.
Pork is a key source of meat in most Bulgarian diets. Vutev said that prices of pork had risen by three to four per cent a week to a cumulative 30 per cent, Bulgarian media reports said on September 19.
He said that livestock producers inWestern Europegathered weekly to discuss prices, “but if this happened in our country, we would immediately be accused of running a cartel”.
Asked why meat from Germany was the cheaper option in Bulgarian shops, Vutev said that inGermany, subsidies for farmers were three to four times higher than in Bulgaria.
Commodity prices have risen this past summer, driven by record droughts in the United Statesand in the Black Sea region, news agency Reuters said.
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said that its Cereal Price Index averaged 260 points in August, the same as in July, with some increases in wheat and rice offsetting a slight weakening in maize.
“Deteriorating crop prospects for maize in the United States and wheat in the Russian Federation initially underpinned export quotations, but prices eased towards the end of the month, following heavy rains in areas hardest hit by drought in the United States and the announcement that the Russian Federation would not impose export restrictions. Renewed import demand sustained international rice quotations,” the FAO said
The FAO Meat Price Index averaged 170 points in August 2012, up four points (2.2 per cent) from July, the FAO said.
“All meat prices rose but most of the momentum came from the grain-intensive pig and poultry sectors, which saw their quotations firming by four and six per cent respectively. The August price increase follows three consecutive months of declines,” the FAO said.
(Photo: patbain/sxc.hu)
