An unusual situation has developed in the meat market of Romania

Prices for chicken meat are significantly higher than the prices for the most consumed meat in the country - pork.

The Romanian meat market is in an unprecedented situation: chicken meat prices are rising and pork meat is getting cheaper, threatening the pig industry, already brought to its knees by the ongoing outbreak of African swine fever. According to Eurostat, prices for live pigs in Romania are around 5 lei (1.00 euros)/kg and 150 euros per 100 kg carcass. Meanwhile, the average price for a live chicken is 6 lei (1.20 euros)/kg, while a chicken carcass costs 200 euros/100 kg.

“For 20 years I have been involved in the promotion of meat and the meat industry, and I have never experienced such a sharp rise in prices. This is a reflection of the dramatic situation facing the pig sector in the country. Currently, Romania imports over 80% of the domestically consumed pork, and national stocks on commercial farms have been drastically reduced. Before the outbreak of ASF, there were 14 million pigs in the country, and at the end of last year there were only 2 million pigs on farms. This is not typical for a market where pork is traditionally the main animal protein consumed,” commented Eugene Capra, CEO of CARNEXPO and CARNEXPO Grill .

The difference manifests itself even in retail, where fresh chicken meat (even dark meat) clearly competes in price with the most valuable pork meat parts. A few years ago, in the European Union, Romania was one of the top 10 pork producers in the bloc. However, since 2018, the decline of the Romanian pig industry has been visible to everyone. The combination of multiple outbreaks of ASF and the disinterest of the authorities in resolving this biosecurity crisis has led to the current situation in the meat market. At the same time, it is worth noting that the EU is going through a period of oversupply of pork as Germany, due to its own ASF crisis, has lost access to some of the most lucrative markets in the world: China, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea. More than 350,000 tons of pork have been shipped from Germany to EU member states facing huge pork shortages such as Romania, Bulgaria and Poland. At the same time, another outbreak of ASF reported recently in Italy could send the EU pork market into a dizzy spell, pushing prices down to levels not seen in decades.

Meanwhile, the continued pressure of bird flu cases reported over the past few years in the EU poultry sector has pushed up the price of chicken, turkey and duck meat. From 2020 to present, over 400 bird flu outbreaks have been reported in Poland, the most important poultry producer in the EU, France has reported 150 outbreaks this winter alone, Spain is also at risk of spreading the disease, and almost 4 have been slaughtered on farms in Italy. million birds at the end of last year. From this point of view, the increase in poultry prices is not a surprise to anyone, and this may explain the increase in prices. “Honestly, I think that the Romanian authorities may start to worry about the country's food self-sufficiency, especially in the animal protein sector,” concluded Mr. Capra.