Agriculture, Baltic Export, Baltic States – CIS, Financial Services, Latvia, Markets and Companies

"Although Latvia's pork export to Russia is tiny, Latvian pig-breeders are still severely affected by the embargo, as it has increased competitiveness in the domestic European market, causing a significant fall in prices of pork in Latvia and in the closest markets in Europe," Treibergs said.

Because it is impossible to acquire new export markets in such a short period of time, the European Union's meat export that was originally intended for the Russian market, was sold in the domestic EU market. As a result, prices fell rapidly. At the end of July, slaughterhouses procured live pigs for EUR 1.21 per kilogram. Now – in the first week of October – prices have slumped down to EUR 1, Treibergs reported.

Pig-breeders Association of Latvia Director Dzintra Lejniece said that there are farms that have implemented modernization projects co-funded by the EU and borrowed money in banks in order to optimize their production costs and increase their competitive capability.

"The price of one live pig on these farms is EUR 1.20 per kilogram. Thus, taking into account the current market price of EUR 1 per kilogram, the current production costs are causing huge losses – EUR 20 per pig," Lejniece said.

According to Agricultural Data Center, there currently are a total of 223,505 live pigs on Latvian farms, 50,300 of which enter the market on a monthly basis. Thus, the total losses for the industry have amounted to EUR 1 million a month, the Latvian Agricultural Organization Cooperation Council indicates.