Archived News

3rd March 2011

Hundreds of pig farmers are descending on Westminster today in a bid to raise awareness of the desperate crisis in the pig industry. 

Unlike the French who seem to stand up for themselves more often, British farmers tend to keep quiet and carry on; so when they do take to the City it really goes to show the dire straits their industry is in.

The BBC interviewed Cameron Naughton, a pig farmer from Wiltshire who has been farming for 25 years as his father before him.  Last year Mr Naughton received £1.50/kg for his pigs and today that has dropped to £1.37/kg while the cost of production is £1.60/kg; he is losing £10 per pig and he sells 200 pigs per week.  As Mr. Naughton said, why should the pig industry be subsidising supermarket profit margins?

The industry as a whole is losing £3.6m a week.

The response from Mr. Opie of the British Retail Consortium, was that they understand the difficult times that farmers are experiencing, but he said they are paying a ‘fair price’ for pork. 

‘How can it be fair to pay farmers less than the cost of production?’ asked the interviewer

Mr Opie replied that the retailer pays the processor, not the pig farmer!  That they try (how hard?) to pay a fair price, they know they have to invest in the supply chain to make sure that the money gets through to the farmer’ 

These are empty words; the pig farmer is clearly not being passed down a ‘fair price’ otherwise that would surely mean enough to cover the cost of production and allow a small profit so as to make it economical for them to stay in pig farming. 

Mr. Naughton pointed out that if the situation continues he wouldn’t be encouraging his children to follow him into pig farming as his own father encouraged him.

During today’s rally, farmers will be handing a petition to 10 Downing Street, asking for greater support and MPs will be invited to a Pigs Are Still Worth It British breakfast at the House of Commons.

The Farmers Weekly spoke to Barney Kay, general manager for the National Pig Association who said “We are not asking for the end price of the product to go up – just a fairer distribution of the margin.

“Retailers are still making profits from pork and so are processors. We are asking why pig producers are subsidising those profits.”

http://www.npa-uk.org.uk/