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CUN PDO pigs and hams. Market disruption?

June 20, 2022

102

The data collected by the Single National Commission, CUN pigs – regarding the weekly sales of animals that feed the PDO supply chains (Parma ham and San Daniele in primis) – still do not add up, amid general indifference to a market disturbance that deserves the attention of the authorities in charge.

Table of Contents

1) Background. CUN pigs, market disruption

The market disruption on sales-and thus price lists-of pigs sold to slaughterhouses in Italy is a constant that GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade) has dealt with many times. (1) Some first signs of a diligent repentance had shown up, after some timely reporting, in February 2021. (2)

Slaughterers gathered at Assica, on 6/30/21, had then gone so far as to boycott the Commissione Unica Nazionale (CUN pigs) itself, notifying MiPAAF and the Italian Stock Exchange of the resignation of their representatives in defiance of the rules in force. (3) And the story continues.

2) RIFT data, Teseo portal.

The RIFT (Italian Registry of the Protected Chain) collects data on batches of pigs sent for slaughter in the PDO circuit at the two inspection institutes IFCQ (San Daniele ham) and CSQA (Parma ham). Since these data must be recorded in real time in the documents accompanying products during PDO supply chains, they are the most reliable source on trends in pig markets.

The data collected each week (Monday/Sunday) in the RIFT are published in advance-the following Tuesday, except for very rare delays-on the Teseo portal.
Teseo has become a point of reference for industry players who eagerly await the release of data (especially during critical periods) for a preview of price fluctuations.

3) Report of CUN pigs

Every Wednesday, after the Teseo preview, the CUNini communicates to its commissioners an Information Report that includes, among others, RIFT data. And it should help CUN swine members negotiate a weekly price list consistent with previous weeks’ sales. The Report can be accessed by anyone by making a special request on the CUN website, usually no earlier than Wednesday evening. Sometimes only on Thursdays, even after the conclusion of the CUN meeting held at 11 a.m.

4) Swine market, the fundamentals

The two key figures, in the pig market, are the number of pigs slaughtered each week and their average weight. (4) Also to be evaluated against data from previous weeks.

Discrepancies between data published on RIFT Teseo and those reported in the CUN Report generally amount to a few hundred pigs (matched by a few percentage points, relative to total sales). And they are attributed to the delay of a couple of days in collecting updated data from CUN and corrected by the following week.

5) Serious anomalies, flying pigs

Serious anomalies in the publication of data were also recorded, ça va sans dir, in 2022. We turn next to some examples of market disruption that come to the attention of the relevant authorities. Reminding all public officials of their duty to report reports of crimes prosecuted ex officio.

– Weeks 15,16/2022

For the first time, there was a significant difference-8,000 and 10,000 pigs, respectively-between the number of pigs slaughtered recorded on RIFT (Teseo) on Tuesday and that noted on the CUN Report about two days later.

– Week 17/2022

The CUN Swine Report data falsely report an increase in average pig weight over the previous 5 weeks, +0.7 percent, compared to an actual decrease (-0.2 percent).
This has resulted in unfair harm to farmers. (5)

– Week 24

The numbers do not add up. On Tuesday morning (14.6.22) Theseus reports 171,246 pigs; on Wednesday afternoon (15.6.22) the CUN Report shows 171,754. With a not insignificant difference of 508 pigs (all slaughtered on Saturday 11.6.22 and noted late? To be verified).

– Quarterly data

4/30/22 was Saturday, and the next day (5/1/22) was a holiday. The data recorded up to that time was therefore not subject to change, as the slaughterhouses were closed. RIFT indicates 2,614,064 pigs slaughtered in the four-month period, a figure inexplicably lower than the number of classified pigs (See All. 2).

Moreover, ISTAT reports the slaughter of 3,288,987 fat pigs to the same time frame. This would mean that 674,923 pigs would have been slaughtered in facilities not required to classify pig carcasses. Impossible. The BDN in turn shows 748,653 more pigs slaughtered than the RIFT data.

6) Possible solutions

Given the ongoing market disruption, again to the detriment of breeders (pig farmers), it is imperative first of all to forward the records to the relevant public prosecutor’s offices for investigation into the possible existence of criminal syndicates. At the operational level, it appears useful:

– Assign the task of system data collection and processing to an independent commissioning structure. RIFT and carcass classification data (which must be considered and compared with RIFT data) – clearly unreliable, as noted above – are still being managed by a control institute with a conflict of interest with quite a few buy-side operators,

– Collect and report weekly to CUN pigs data on the slaughter in Italy of non-PDO pigs (domestic and foreign). In fact, their performance is correlated with market dynamics (e.g. price of foreign pigs, availability of PDO pigs, etc.) that are also relevant to price formulation for both PDO and non-PDO pigs,

– Introduce public blockchain technology to ensure the completeness, timeliness and incorruptibility of data to be entered into the system by all operators. The writer has already offered the provision of source code(Wiise Chain) based on the Bitcoin protocol and useful for the purpose. (6)

Dario Dongo

Attachments

1) ‘CUN pig oddities, average weight 2022’
2) Quarterly CUN pork accounts, weeks 1-17/2022.

Notes

(1) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Pig market, serious anomalies on prices set by CUN. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 13.2.21,

(2) Dario Dongo, Marta Strinati. CUN pigs, the price is not (yet) right. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 24.2.21,

(3) Dario Dongo.
CUN pigs, the boycott of slaughterers united in Assica.
. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 14.7.21,

(4) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Swine market, mystery about PDO carcass classification. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 11.3.21,

(5) See Appendix, page 2, last line. The corrected numerical values were assigned to different periods than the relevant ones (see Appendix, pages 1 and 5). So as to obtain a false statement of market reality, instrumental in the price reduction at the 28.4.22 meeting of the CUN pigs (see Appendix, page 4)

(6) Dario Dongo. PDO pig genetics, Antitrust rejects conflicts of interest. #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 12.6.22.