Recovery continues

Slaughter cattle prices in the European Union have recently been on a more favourable trend again. In the week ending 7 June, the average price paid for young bulls of category R3 in the reporting Member States was €351.54 per 100 kg carcass weight (cw) according to the European Commission; compared with the previous week, this corresponded to an increase of €2.73 or 0.8%. Contrary to the trend, however, the fatteners in the Netherlands and Austria had to accept reductions of 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively. In Belgium, the price moved sideways, while in Ireland, France, Denmark, Germany and Spain, revenues were between 0.2% and 0.8% higher than in the previous week. In Poland, young bull prices rose by 1.0%; the increase was particularly strong in Italy with 7.2%.

Cows also saw widespread markups in the week under review. According to the Commission, animals in the O3 category sold for an average of €268.72 per 100 kg cw in the EU, an increase of 1.2%; however, the level of the previous year was still missed by 9.2%. Recently, prices for cows for slaughter have been much more favourable in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy and Belgium, where there were premiums of between 3.4 and 1.5%. While O3 cows in Denmark and France still rose by 0.8% and 0.6% respectively, the price in Poland fell by 0.3% and in Ireland by as much as 1.5%.

Heifers for slaughter also showed a more positive trend in the week of the report; according to the Commission, the EU quotation rose by 0.7% to €361.96 per 100 kg cw. However, prices fell in some Member States, such as Spain by 0.5% and Ireland by 0.1%. In Belgium, heifers remained at the previous week's level, while the Netherlands, Poland and France reported comparatively weak markups of between 0.3% and 0.8%. The increase was somewhat stronger in Denmark, Germany and Austria, where R3 heifers sold between 1.0% and 2.0% more than in the previous week. The increase was also significantly higher in Italy with 7.0%.