5 Analysis of ten organic product markets in Europe in 2001
5.8 The organic pork market
5.8.7 Prices for organic pork
The EU average farmer price for organic pork in 2001 was 246 €/100 kg (see Figure 5-61).
This weighted average price was mainly influenced by the farmer prices in the large volume producing countries as Germany, France and Denmark. From these countries, Germany reported the lowest farmer price with 235 €/100 kg. Only Italy reported a farmer price more than 20 percent below the EU average price. Countries with farmer prices exceeding the EU average by more than 20 percent were Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and the four non-EU countries. The high farmer price in the United Kingdom can be explained by the high share of organic pork imports of that country and due to its low degree of self-sufficiency of only 76 percent. Because of that, farmer prices were adapted to the prices of imported organic pork, which usually are high since they include transport costs. Especially high farmer prices were surveyed for Greece with 500 €/100 kg and for Switzerland with 418
€/100 kg. Apart from these exceptions, it is obvious that the farmer prices for organic pork showed a lower variation between countries than surveyed for other meat product groups as organic beef, organic sheep and goat meat and organic poultry.
Figure 5-61 Farmer prices for organic and conventional pork in €/100 kg in 2001
500
349
327 322
268 267
251 250
240 235
219 214 165
246 338
308 418
367
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
GR IE LU UK DK FR NL BE AT DE FI SE IT EU CZ SI CH NO
Organic farmer price Conventional farmer price --- = 20% above or below the EU average
The organic pork market
__________________________________________________________________________________________
172 In Figure 5-62, the farmer price premiums for organic pork are presented. These are the price premiums of organic farmer prices over the conventional farmer prices for pork.
Organic pork production demands higher price premiums than, for example, organic milk or beef production, since it is mainly based on concentrates such as cereals and oilcakes, for which organic price premiums are high. Other reasons are the required costly modifications to existing animal housing, as well as higher levels of labour. The lowest price premium for organic pork among the EU countries was observed in Austria and Germany with 45 percent and in Finland and Sweden with 46 and 47 percent, respectively, whereas the EU average was 62 percent. Among the EU countries, the farmer price premium for organic pork was highest in the Netherlands with 132 percent. Interestingly, a huge difference was surveyed between the farmer price premium in the Czech Republic with 229 percent and in Slovenia, where organic and conventional pork was sold at the same price in the year 2001. In Slovenia, the share of organic pork production measured by total pork production was only 0.03 percent in 2001 and most parts of the production were consumed directly on farm and did not reach the market. Due to the fact that a market for organic pork was almost non-existent, it is no wonder that the farmer price premium was zero. In the Czech Republic, a considerable amount of organic pork was produced in 2001. Nevertheless, the production costs seem to have been much higher than for conventional pork. The consequence was a farmer price premium which exceeded the EU average more than threefold.
Figure 5-62 Farmer price premiums for organic over conventional pork prices in percent in 2001
132 119
112
85
78 78 78
62
49 47 46 45 45
62 229
0 86
51
0 50 100 150 200 250
NL IE UK GR BE DK LU FR IT SE FI AT DE EU CZ SI CH NO
--- = 20% above or below the EU average
The organic pork market
__________________________________________________________________________________________
As examples of the product group organic pork, Table 5-25 presents the consumer prices for organic pork cutlet and organic minced pork surveyed in the year 2001. High prices for organic pork cutlets were reported from the United Kingdom and from Denmark. For the United Kingdom this can be explained by the fact that a large part of the consumed organic pork had to be imported. However, for Denmark, the above average consumer price for organic pork cutlet was surprising as Denmark was the country with the highest degree of self-sufficiency with organic pork of 125 percent in 2001. The domestic demand was completely met by domestic production. Thus, other reasons must exist, which increased the consumer prices for organic pork. Looking at the production costs (see Figure 5-61), they cannot be the reason either. Farmer prices for organic pork in Denmark were only slightly above the EU average in 2001. Especially low consumer prices for organic pork cutlets were surveyed in Finland, Sweden and Italy. The consumer price for organic minced pork was around 10 €/kg in most EU countries. Again it was the United Kingdom reporting the highest consumer price.
Table 5-25 Consumer prices for organic pork cutlet and organic minced pork in €/kg in 2001
Country Pork cutlet Minced pork
EU countries
AT 10.42 8.54
BE 12.06 10.44
DE 10.891 9.93
DK 18.78 t 9.39
ES nd nd
FI 7.84 u 5.89 u
FR 10.98 7.23 u
GR nd nd
IE 12.70 nd
IT 9.32 u 10.43
LU 13.88 16.11 t
NL 11.32 10.64
PT nd nd
SE 9.28 u nd
UK 21.24 t 17.67 t
Weighted
EU average2 12.35 10.24
Accession countries
CZ 4.71 3.24
SI nd nd
EFTA countries
CH 24.30 12.41
NO 14.81 nd
t = more than 20% above the EU average u = more than 20% below the EU average
1 Figure from the Zentrale Markt- und Preisberichtstelle (ZMP)
2 Weighted by organic consumption
The organic pork market
__________________________________________________________________________________________
174 Table 5-26 shows the consumer price premiums for organic over conventional pork cutlet and minced pork prices. For both products the EU average was around 50 percent. It was not surprising that the price premiums recorded for pork products were higher than for beef products. The higher farmer price premium resulted from production cost differences and the relationship between demand and supply. In Belgium and Luxembourg, the consumer price premiums of both pork products were more than 20 percent above the EU average. Finland was the only country with both consumer price premiums being more than 20 percent below the EU average. Another interesting result was that in some countries price premiums for one of the two surveyed pork products was relatively high, and for the other, relatively low.
Examples include pork products in Italy, the Netherlands, and in Switzerland.
Table 5-26 Consumer price premiums for organic pork cutlet and organic minced pork in percent in 2001
Country Pork cutlet Minced pork
EU countries
AT 50 68 t
BE 95 t 78 t
DE 651t 48
DK 27 u 49
ES nd nd
FI 27 u 25 u
FR 80 t 59
GR nd nd
IE 45 nd
IT 13 u 92 t
LU 90 t 92 t
NL 26 u 81 t
PT nd nd
SE 32 u nd
UK 14 u nd
Weighted
EU average2 51 52
Accession countries
CZ 10 11
SI nd nd
EFTA countries
CH 80 20
NO 74 nd
t = more than 20% above the EU average u = more than 20% below the EU average
1 Figure from the Zentrale Markt- und Preisberichtstelle (ZMP)
2 Weighted by organic consumption
The organic poultry market
__________________________________________________________________________________________